Books for Troubled Times in the Arab World
Destination: Iran (Persia, 12th Century)
Book: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward Fitzgerald (1917)
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam*, a rather slim book with its ivory slip cover and front embossed with green, red and gold twining roses held an honored position in my parent’s living room. Inside, in my father’s distinctive sweeping handwriting, a front page bore a dedication to The Duchesss, his form of address for my mother when they were courting back in the 1930’s. The book was gilt edged and illustrated with dreamy watercolors of beautiful and exotic scenes of women in filmy gowns and men in turbans and gowns surrounded by lush gardens. Other illustrations show white palaces, or royal rooms that set a little girl dreaming. Continue reading A Persian Poet
