# Where can I get a good "moving finger?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2001, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-get-a-good-moving-finger/53037 "2001-02-03T19:09:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2001, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-get-a-good-moving-finger/53037/1 "2001-02-03T19:09:20Z")
Anyone know of a good translation of _The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam_? Most of us are familiar with the “classic” translation of Edward FitzGerald, but my understanding is that he took great liberties with the quatrains, even combining and condensing them, so that the result has little resemblance to the original. I’d like to find a good “literal-as-possible” translation that doesn’t try to rewrite the poems (as Mr FitzGerald might have done), nor tried to shoehorn them into stilted English rhymes–as translators are wont to do. Anyway, I think it would be interesting to see a side-by-side comparison. I’d do it myself if I understood Farsi, a quality I unfortunately lack. . . ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2001, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-get-a-good-moving-finger/53037/2 "2001-02-03T19:44:39Z")
Where can I get a good “moving finger?” Try _Daniel,_ chapter 5. ---
**Author:** ![Alonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Alonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alonist)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2001, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-get-a-good-moving-finger/53037/3 "2001-02-06T13:06:45Z")
Some Sufis (associated with the late Idries Shah, if I recall correctly) asked Robert Graves to do a literal translation of Omar’s verses into English, back in the 70’s, I think it was. He didn’t try to rhyme it. Hm, I just looked it up, and the translation is attributed to Omar Ali-Shah. Either Graves just helped, or Ali-Shah is Graves, which seems likely. The book is not in print, but [Yahoo](http://shopping.yahoo.com/shop?d=b&id=3938781&cf=1) has Graves reading it on tape. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2001, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-get-a-good-moving-finger/53037/4 "2001-02-06T13:22:49Z")
All I have on hand is a sampling from _Anthology of Islamic Literature_ by James Kritzeck (New American Library, 1964). The most famous lines of Islamic literature in English translation, no doubt, are these: > [@](#): > > A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, > A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread–and Thou > Beside me singing in the Wilderness– > Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow! As everyone knows, they are Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of a quatrain of Omar (let us call him Umar) Khayyam. But are they Umar himself? It is true that there is a Persian quatrain attributed to Umar which might be translated literally as follows: > [@](#): > > If hand should give of the pith of wheat a loaf, > and of wine a two-maunder jug, of sheep a thigh, > with a little sweeheart seated in a desolation, > a pleasure it is that is not the attainment of any sultan. Fitzgerald translated this quatrain, and all the others, very freely. By the simple substitution of a book of poems for a thigh of mutton and a bough for a sultan, he has translated us straight into a Victorian picnic. ---
**Author:** ![Zarathustra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/898d66/32.png) [@Zarathustra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zarathustra)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2001, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-get-a-good-moving-finger/53037/5 "2001-02-07T00:21:21Z")
The French say that a translation is like a woman: a faithful one is unlikely to be beautiful, a beautiful one is unlikely to be faithful. That’s translated from the French, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2001, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-get-a-good-moving-finger/53037/6 "2001-02-07T06:03:15Z")
_Traduttore, traditore_. ---
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2001, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-get-a-good-moving-finger/53037/7 "2001-02-07T09:59:12Z")
Do a search on [ecampus](http://www.ecampus.com) for “Rubaiyat, Khayyam” or somesuch. Among the results, you should find _Omar Khayyam’s The Rubaiyat: A Literal Translation_ by Parvine Mahmoud. You’d have to special order it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2001, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-get-a-good-moving-finger/53037/8 "2001-02-07T10:15:41Z")
Please ignore my above post. ecampus gave me no ordering love, and Barnes and Noble has that edition listed (though it’s apparently out of print), along with others, which you obviously didn’t need me to tell you. Bedtime for me.