In the renowned translation by Edward Fitz Gerald with an introduction by Professor Cedric Watts Here is Edward Fitz Gerald's original translation of the Rubaiyat the collection of poems attributed to the Persian astronomer & mathematician Omar Khayyam Fitz Gerald's distinctive version (1859) with its oriental imagery & sensual warmth made an exotic appeal to the Victorian imagination Its scepticism fitted a time of increasing religious doubt; its romantic melancholy resonated with the writings of Matthew Arnold & Thomas Hardy; & its epicureanism heralded the Aesthetic Movement It has inspired composers rock groups artists & film-makers As rendered by Fitz Gerald the Rubaiyat remains a seductively subversive poem