Month: August 2020

Recently, I was thinking about which book to read next and I have decided that I would like to read some of the classic titles from yesteryear, by authors such as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and the like.

I was scanning my own bookshelves to see what I could find (in that vein) and came across a few such books by other authors.

In my travels I came across a Poetry book that was not with my Poetry collection. It was tucked away in the Biographical section and I must admit that I had forgotten all about it. It is now back in its rightful place.

The book in question is, ‘Quatrains of Omar Khayyam’ translated by E.H. Whinefeld. It is quite a small, thin book and in fact measures 10 cm high, 15 cm wide and 8 mm thick.

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet who was born on 18 May 1048  and passed away on 4 December 1131.

What is a Quatrain? It is a stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes.

The Introduction goes for 26 pages with the balance of the book containing no less than 395 Quatrains and was printed in 1920.

I thoroughly enjoyed flipping through the pages this afternoon, sampling some of the poems. I’m sure I will be revisiting it again soon.

Written by David Johnson

23 August 2020