Edward Fitzgerald

Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883) was an English scholar, born in Suffolk. At Cambridge, where he graduated in 1830, he formed close friendships with James Spedding and Thackeray, and afterwards was on intimate terms with Carlyle and Tennyson. His life was quietly spent in his country residence in Suffolk, varied by yachting expeditions and visits to London, where he made the round of his friends. His first book, "Euphranor," a dialogue on youth, appeared when he was 42, "Polonius" followed and some Spanish translations, but his fame rests on his translations of Persian poetry, and especially on his rendering of the 11th-century poet, Omar Khayyám.

Wisdom & Quotes

From the Rubaiyat of Oman Khayyam

• Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,

Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum.

• Awake! For Morning in the Bowl of Night

Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight.

• The Moving Finger writes; and having writ

Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

• Ah Love! Could thou and I with Fate conspire

To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would we not shatter it to bits - and then remold it nearer
To the Heart's Desire!

• Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose!

That Youth's sweet-scented Manuscript should close.

• A book of verses underneath the bough

A jug of wine, a loaf of bread - and thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness.

Cao Ba Quat