The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse--and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness-- And Wilderness is Paradise enow.
poetryEnglishFree
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
By Omar Khayyam (Ghiyāth al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīshābūrī)
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is an 1859 translation from Persian to English by Edward FitzGerald of a selection of quatrains (rubāʿiyāt) attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dubbed "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia". Although commercially unsuccessful at first, FitzGerald's work was popularised from 1861 onward by Whitley Stokes, and the work came to be greatly admired by the Pre-Raphaelites in England. FitzGerald had a third edition printed in 1872, which increased interest in the work in the United States. By the 1880s, the book was extremely popular throughout the English-speaking world, to the extent that numerous "Omar Khayyam clubs" were formed and there was a "fin de siècle cult of the Rubaiyat". FitzGerald's work has been published in several hundred editions and has inspired similar translation efforts in English, Hindi and many other languages.
Edition record
Why this edition is available
Bite reviewed this specific edition as public domain using the source, jurisdiction records, and dated evidence below. Public domain is a legal status rather than a licence, and it may differ by country or edition.
- Edition
- Project Gutenberg eBook #246 — Edward FitzGerald English translation
- Source text
- Open the source edition
- Review coverage
- 44 jurisdictions · latest check 31 Aug 2026
Review all jurisdiction evidenceauthor (original Persian poet; source of the rubāʿīyāt / quatrains) Omar Khayyam (Ghiyāth al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīshābūrī) died 1131; translator / adapter / writer of the Introduction and Notes (rendered into English verse) Edward (or Edward FitzGerald) FitzGerald died 1883. All identified copyright-relevant edition contributors are beyond the conservative expiry cutoff applied from the cited jurisdictional duration rule as of 2026-08-31.
Review basis for AU
A look inside
67 / 450