LV Community Podcast 132: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Algy Pug · Post by **Algy Pug** » August 18th, 2012, 9:44 am

Here is Community Podcast no 132:

http://archive.org/download/librivox_community_2012/librivox_community_podcast_132.mp3
49:54

0:00 - Introduction
2:50 - Bob Gonzalez interviews Algy Pug
24:35 - Librivox recordings of the Rubaiyat
38:59 - Amy Gramour's Rubaiyat project
41:22 - Mostafa with an insider's view of the Rubaiyat
48:22 - Conclusion

Enjoy!

Algy Pug

Cori · Post by **Cori** » August 18th, 2012, 10:11 am

Brilliant, Algy, just getting this loaded up for you

catrose · Post by **catrose** » August 18th, 2012, 10:12 am

Can't wait to hear this! I'll download it tonight

Cori · Post by **Cori** » August 18th, 2012, 10:20 am

Is there anything else you'd like to put in the show notes? Any links to recordings, or a text intro to the Rubaiyat itself or anything?

catrose · Post by **catrose** » August 18th, 2012, 10:59 am

Brilliant podcast Algy! I feel like I've learnt loads from listening to it! Well done!

Oh, my internet broke somewhere towards the end, so I missed most of the conclusion and I can't hear it unless I listen to everything again, but I trust it was brilliant!

bobgon55 · Post by **bobgon55** » August 18th, 2012, 11:31 am

Excellent job, Algy! Bravo! Very informative, well-structured, and beautiful. A nice variety of LibriVoices, too, which is what makes the community podcast what it is.

Mostafa's mention that the rhythm and melody of the original Persian is lost in translation makes me think of the Robert Frost's famous quip that poetry is what gets lost in translation. The rhythm, melody, and all of the music of the source language is what cannot be translated. The only hope is that another musical setting in the music of the target language can be achieved, that the particular arrangement of vowels and consonant sounds sing a new melody that can rightfully be called poetry. Of course, if the translator is aiming for a literal translation, the musical effect is highly unlikely.

Bob

Piotrek81 · Post by **Piotrek81** » August 18th, 2012, 1:23 pm

I've just finished listening to this installment and I must say that I found it to be very informative

Thanks for letting me learn so much about the Rubaiyat. I must admit that before I listened to this podcast I had known almost nothing about this collection.

One thing that Mostafa said struck me as very true- in case of any translation, but especially with a work translated from a not-very-popular language we are bound to lose the context! I mean, nowadays, even with all this deluge of American books on the Polish market and US TV shows and my university-based knowledge I still find many States-related references very obscure and what can a reader say when a work is kind of totally taken out of cultural context, like in this case? Of course, you can write a scholarly introduction and a whole mass of comments and footnotes that, taken together, will be much longer than the work itself (just take a look at the project of "Travels of Marco Polo" that is being recorded now), but how many people will have the stamina to go through this and absorb all the info necessary to really understand the piece?

Also, I'm totally with you, Mostafa, when it comes to your frustration at not being able to give a clearly PD source for a work that clearly is in the public domain.

I wanted to write something about one more thing that Mostafa mentioned but it eluded me

Anyway, thanks for that podcast installment

Algy Pug · Post by **Algy Pug** » August 18th, 2012, 8:40 pm

Cori wrote:Is there anything else you'd like to put in the show notes? Any links to recordings, or a text intro to the Rubaiyat itself or anything?

Thanks Cori

Here is an opening blurb with a list of relevant links:

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is one of the best loved and most widely translated collections of poetry in world literature. In this podcast, Librivox volunteers discuss different aspects of the Rubaiyat, and we share some excerpts from the many recordings of the Rubaiyat in the Librivox catalogue.

There are many online sources for Rubaiyat material, but one of the best, and one that has often been used as the source for texts in Librivox recordings is the following:
http://www.omarkhayyamnederland.com/
Another excellent source for Rubaiyat material is Richard Brodie's site:
http://www.therubaiyat.com/

Excerpts from the following Librivox recordings have been used in this podcast:

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám, translated by Edward Fitzgerald - First Edition
Read by Alaaious
http://archive.org/details/rubaiyat_a_librivox

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám, translated by Edward Fitzgerald - Fifth Edition
Read by Nathan
http://archive.org/details/rubaiyat_edition5_1009_n_librivox

Quatrain, translated by H.G Keene
Read by Leonard O'Connor
http://archive.org/details/quatrain_1107_librivox

Quatrain, translated by Sir William Jones
Read by Lee Ann Howlett
http://archive.org/details/quatrain_khayyam_1202_librivox

18 Quatrains from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Whitley Stokes
Read by Barty Begley
http://archive.org/details/short_poetry_097_librivox

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám, translated by Edward Whinfield
Read by Mostafa, Noel Badrian, Rhonda Federman and DublinGothic
http://archive.org/details/rubaiyat_bilingual_1207_librivox

Omar Resung, by Charles Blanden
Read by Cathy Barratt, Bob Gonzalez and Bev Stevens
http://archive.org/details/omar_resung_1205_librivox

Quatrains of Omar Khayyam of Nishapur, translated by E.F. Thompson
Read by Elizabeth Klett and Jannie
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=41247

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám, translated by H.M. (Jessie) Cadell
Read by Amy Gramour
http://archive.org/details/rubaiyat_khayyam2_1107_librivox

Cheers

Algy Pug

YouTube · Post by **Darvinia** » August 18th, 2012, 10:08 pm

Algy Pug wrote: Omar Resung, by Charles Blanden
Read by Cathy Barratt, Bob Gonzalez and Darvinia
http://archive.org/details/omar_resung_1205_librivox

May I request that my name be shown as Bev Stevens instead of Darvinia?

And thanks Algy for this podcast.

Algy Pug · Post by **Algy Pug** » August 18th, 2012, 11:58 pm

Darvinia wrote:
Algy Pug wrote: Omar Resung, by Charles Blanden
Read by Cathy Barratt, Bob Gonzalez and Darvinia
http://archive.org/details/omar_resung_1205_librivox
May I request that my name be shown as Bev Stevens instead of Darvinia?

And thanks Algy for this podcast.

Not a problem, Bev. As you can see, I have amended the above post accordingly.

Cheers

Algy

Cori · Post by **Cori** » August 19th, 2012, 4:47 am

I tweaked Lee Ann's name too, and it's all updated in the blog post

http://librivox.org/2012/08/18/librivox-community-podcast-132/

Algy Pug · Post by **Algy Pug** » August 19th, 2012, 5:06 am

Cori wrote:I tweaked Lee Ann's name too, and it's all updated in the blog post

http://librivox.org/2012/08/18/librivox-community-podcast-132/

Thanks Cori - it all looks great.

Cheers

Algy Pug

Britannia · Post by **Britannia** » August 20th, 2012, 4:50 am

I finally found some time to listen to this podcast and what can I say, apart that it was really instructive and interesting ? Good job !

Before that, I knew absolutely nothing, nothing at all, about Omar Khayyam or what the Rubaiyat was (did not even know it existed

). So now I intend to get to know his work better. And -who knows ?- I might even record some of his quatrains someday.

So, to conclude, THANKS for the nice discovery !

Regards,
Britannia

Algy Pug · Post by **Algy Pug** » August 20th, 2012, 5:44 am

Britannia wrote:I finally found some time to listen to this podcast and what can I say, apart that it was really instructive and interesting ? Good job !

Before that, I knew absolutely nothing, nothing at all, about Omar Khayyam or what the Rubaiyat was (did not even know it existed ). So now I intend to get to know his work better. And -who knows ?- I might even record some of his quatrains someday.

So, to conclude, THANKS for the nice discovery !

Regards,
Britannia

Thank you Brittania

Of course, there are at least two public domain Rubiayat versions in French, if you are interested....

Cheers

Algy {ug

Britannia · Post by **Britannia** » August 20th, 2012, 10:29 am

You're most welcome.

It seems that virtually all the French versions listed on the website you gave (http://www.omarkhayyamnederland.com/) are PD, only Toussaint's translation was published in 1924... Which leaves 4 versions out of 5 that are PD.

That could very well interest me, I will definitely look deeper into that.

Regards,
Britannia