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2 episodes with edward fitzgerald
2 episodes with edward fitzgerald
16 episodes with edward fitzgerald
2 episodes with edward fitzgerald
2 episodes with edward fitzgerald
Ahead of her new book What's So Great About the Great Books? coming out in April, Naomi Kanakia and I talked about literature from Herodotus to Tony Tulathimutte. We touched on Chaucer, Anglo-Saxon poetry, Scott Alexander, Shakespeare, William James, Helen deWitt, Marx and Engels, Walter Scott, Les Miserables, Jhootha Sach, the Mahabharata, and more. Naomi also talked about some of her working habits and the history and future of the Great Books movement. Naomi, of course, writes Woman of Letters here on Substack.TranscriptHenry Oliver: Today, I am talking with Naomi Kanakia. Naomi is a novelist, a literary critic, and most importantly she writes a Substack called Woman of Letters, and she has a new book coming out, What's So Great About the Great Books? Naomi, welcome.Naomi Kanakia: Thanks for having me on.Oliver: How is the internet changing the way that literature gets discussed and criticized, and what is that going to mean for the future of the Great Books?Kanakia: How is the internet changing it? I can really speak to only how it has changed it for me. I started off as a writer of young adult novels and science fiction, and there's these very active online fan cultures for those two things.I was reading the Great Books all through that time. I started in 2010 through today. In the 2010s, it really felt like there was not a lot of online discussion of classic literature. Maybe that was just me and I wasn't finding it, but it didn't necessarily feel like there was that community.I think because there are so many strong, public-facing institutions that discuss classic literature, like the NYRB, London Review of Books, a lot of journals, and universities, too. But now on Substack, there are a number of blogs—yours, mine, a number of other ones—that are devoted to classic literature. All of those have these commenters, a community of commenters. I also follow bloggers who have relatively small followings who are reading Tolstoy, reading Middlemarch, reading even much more esoteric things.I know that for me, becoming involved in this online culture has given me much more of an awareness that there are many people who are reading the classics on their own. I think that was always true, but now it does feel like it's more of a community.Oliver: We are recording this the day after the Washington Post book section has been removed. You don't see some sort of relationship between the way these literary institutions are changing online and the way the Great Books are going to be conceived of in the future? Because the Great Books came out of a an old-fashioned, saving-the-institutions kind of radical approach to university education. We're now moving into a world where all those old things seem to be going.Kanakia: Yes. I agree. The Great Books began in the University of Chicago and Columbia University. If you look into the history of the movement, it really was about university education and the idea that you would have a common core and all undergraduates would read these books. The idea that the Great Books were for the ordinary person was really an afterthought, at least for Mortimer Adler and those original Great Books guys. Now, the Great Books in the university have had a resurgence that we can discuss, but I do think there's a lot more life and vitality in the kind of public-facing humanities than there has been.I talked to Irina Dumitrescu, who writes for TLS (The Times Literary Supplement), LRB (The London Review of Books), a lot of these places, and she also said the same thing—that a lot of these journals are going into podcasts, and they're noticing a huge interest in the humanities and in the classics even at the same time as big institutions are really scaling back on those things. Humanities majors are dropping, classics majors are getting cut, book coverage at major periodicals is going down. It does seem like there are signals that are conflicting. I don't really know totally what to make of it. I do think there is some relation between those two things.Ted Gioia on Substack is always talking about how culture is stagnant, basically, and one of the symptoms of that is that “back list” really outsells “front list” for books. Even in 2010, 50 percent of the books that were sold were front-list titles, books that had been released in the last 18 months. Now it's something like only 35 percent of books or something like that are front-list titles. These could be completely wrong, but there's been a trend.I think the decrease in interest in front-list books is really what drives the loss of these book-review pages because they mostly review front-list books. So, I think that does imply that there's a lot of interest in old books. That's what our stagnant culture means.Oliver: Why do you think your own blog is popular with the rationalists?Kanakia: I don't know for certain. There was a story I wrote that was a joke. There are all these pop nonfiction books that aim to prove something that seems counterintuitive, so I wrote a parody of one of those where I aim to prove that reading is bad for you. This book has many scientific studies that show the more you read, the worse it is because it makes you very rigid.Scott Alexander, who is the archrationalist, really liked that, and he added me to his blog roll. Because of that, I got a thousand rationalist subscribers. I have found that rationalists at least somewhat interested in the classics. I think they are definitely interested in enduring sources of value. I've observed a fair amount of interest.Oliver: How much of a lay reader are you really? Because you read scholarship and critics and you can just quote John Gilroy in the middle of a piece or something.Kanakia: Yeah. That is a good question. I have definitely gotten more interested in secondary literature. In my book, I really talk about being a lay reader and personally having a nonacademic approach to literature. I do think that, over 15 years of being a lay reader, I have developed a lot of knowledge.I've also learned the kind of secondary literature that is really important. I think having historical context adds a lot and is invaluable. Right now I'm rereading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. When I first read it in 2010, I hardly knew anything about French history. I was even talking online with someone about how most people who read Les Miserables think it's set in the French Revolution. That's basically because Americans don't really know anything about French history.Everything makes just a lot more sense the more you know about the time because it was written for people in it. For people in 1860s France, who knew everything about their own recent history, that really adds a lot to it. I still don't tend to go that much into interpretive literature, literature that tries to do readings of the stories or tell me the meaning of the stories. I feel like I haven't really gotten that much out of that.Oliver: How long have you been learning Anglo-Saxon?Kanakia: I went through a big Anglo-Saxon phase. That was in 2010. It started because I started reading The Canterbury Tales in Middle English. There is a great app online called General Prologue created by one of your countrymen, Terry Richardson [NB it is Terry Jones], who loved Middle English. In this app, he recites the Middle English of the General Prologue. I started listening to this app, and I thought, I just really love the rhythms and the sounds of Middle English. And it's quite easy to learn. So then, I got really into that.And then I thought, but what about Anglo-Saxon? I'm very bad at languages. I studied Latin for seven years in middle school and high school. I never really got very far, but I thought, Anglo-Saxon has to be the easiest foreign language you can learn, right? So, I got into it.I cannot sight read Anglo-Saxon, but I really got into Anglo-Saxon poetry. I really liked the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Most people probably would not like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle because it's very repetitive, but that makes it great if you're a language learner because every entry is in this very repetitive structure. I just felt such a connection. I get in trouble when I say this kind of stuff, because I'm never quiet sure if it's 100 percent true. But it's certainly one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Europe. It's just so much older than most of the other medieval literature I've read. And it just was such a window into a different part of history I never knew about.Oliver: And you particularly like “The Dream of the Rood”?Kanakia: Yeah, “The Dream of the Rood” is my favorite Anglo-Saxon poem. “The Dream of the Rood” is a poem that is told from the point of view of Christ's cross. A man is having a dream. In this dream he encounters Christ's cross, and Christ's cross starts reciting to him basically the story of the crucifixion. At the end, the cross is buried. I don't know, it was just so haunting and powerful. Yeah, it was one of my favorites.Oliver: Why do you think Byron is a better poet than Alexander Pope?Kanakia: This is an argument I cannot get into. I think this is coming up because T. S. Eliot felt that Alexander Pope was a great poet because he really exemplified the spirit of the age. I don't know. I've tried to read Pope. It just doesn't do it for me. Whereas with Byron, I read Don Juan and found it entertaining. I enjoyed it. Then, his lyric poetry is just more entertaining to read. With Alexander Pope, I'm learning a lot about what kind of poetry people wrote in the 18th century, but the joy is not there.Oliver: Okay. Can we do a quick fire round where I say the name of a book and you just say what you think of it, whatever you think of it?Kanakia: Sure.Oliver: Okay. The Odyssey.Kanakia: The Odyssey. Oh, I love The Odyssey. It has a very strange structure, where it starts with Telemachus and then there's this flashback in the middle of it. It is much more readable than The Iliad; I'll say that.Oliver: Herodotus.Kanakia: Herodotus is wild. Going into Herodotus, I really thought it was about the Persian war, which it is, but it's mostly a general overview of everything that Herodotus knew, about anything. It's been a long time since I read it. I really appreciate the voice of Herodotus, how human it is, and the accumulation of facts. It was great.Oliver: I love the first half actually. The bit about the Persian war I'm less interested in, but the first half I think is fantastic. I particularly love the Egypt book.Kanakia: Oh yeah, the Egypt book is really good.Oliver: All those like giant beetles that are made of fire or whatever; I can't remember the details, but it's completely…Kanakia: The Greeks are also so fascinated by Egypt. They go down there like what is going on out there? Then, most of what we know about Egypt comes from this Hellenistic period, when the Greeks went to Egypt. Our Egyptian kings list comes from the Hellenistic period where some scholar decided to sort out what everybody was up to and put it all into order. That's why we have such an orderly story about Egypt. That's the story that the Greeks tried to tell themselves.Oliver: Marcus Aurelius.Kanakia: Marcus Aurelius. When I first read The Meditations, which I loved, obviously, I thought, “being the Roman emperor cannot be this hard.” It really was a black pill moment because I thought, “if the emperor of Rome is so unhappy, maybe human power really doesn't do it.”Knowing more about Marcus Aurelius, he did have quite a difficult life. He was at war for most of his—just stuck in the region in Germany for ages. He had various troubles, but yeah, it really was very stoic. It was, oh, I just have to do my duty. Very “heavy is the head that wears the crown” kind of stuff. I thought, “okay, I guess being Roman emperor is not so great.”Oliver: Omar Khayyam.Kanakia: Omar Khayyam. Okay, I've only read The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald, which I loved, but I cannot formulate a strong opinion right now.Oliver: As You Like It.Kanakia: No opinions.Oliver: Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.Kanakia: Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. I do have an opinion about this, which is that they should make a redacted version of Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. I normally am not a big believer in abridgements because I feel like whatever is there is there. But, Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, first of all, has a long portion before Boswell even meets Johnson. That portion drags; it's not that great. Then it has all these like letters that Johnson wrote, which also are not that great. What's really good is when Boswell just reports everything Johnson ever said, which is about half the book. You get a sense of Johnson's conversation and his personality, and that is very gripping. I've definitely thought that with a different presentation, this could still be popular. People would still read this.Oliver: The Communist Manifesto.Kanakia: The Communist Manifesto. It's very stirring. I love The Communist Manifesto. It has very haunting, powerful lines. I won't try to quote from it because I'll misquote them.Oliver: But it is remarkably well written.Kanakia: Oh yeah, it is a great work of literature.Oliver: Yeah.Kanakia: I read Capital [Das Kapital], which is not a great work of literature, and I would venture to say that it is not necessarily worth reading. It really feels like Marx's reputation is built on other political writings like The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and works like that, which really seem to have a lot more meat on the bone than Capital.Oliver: Pragmatism by William James.Kanakia: Pragmatism. I mean, I've mentioned that in my book. I love William James in general. I think William James was writing in this 19th-century environment where it seemed like some form of skepticism was the only rational solution. You couldn't have any source of value, and he really tried to cut through that with Pragmatism and was like, let's just believe the things that are good to believe. It is definitely at least useful to think, although someone else can always argue with you about what is useful to believe. But, as a personal guide for belief, I think it is still useful.Oliver: Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw.Kanakia: No strong opinions. It was a long time ago that I read Major Barbara.Oliver: Tell me what you like about James Fenimore Cooper.Kanakia: James Fenimore Cooper. Oh, this is great. I have basically a list of Great Books that I want to read, but four or five years ago, I thought, “what's in all the other books that I know the names of but that are not reputed, are not the kind of books you still read?”That was when I read Walter Scott, who I really love. And I just started reading all kinds of books that were kind of well known but have kind of fallen into literary disfavor. In almost every case, I felt like I got a lot out of these books. So, nowadays when I approach any realm of literature, I always look for those books.In 19th-century American literature, the biggest no-longer-read book is The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, which was America's first bestseller. He was the first American novelist that had a high reputation in Europe. The Last of the Mohicans is kind of a historical romance, à la Walter Scott, but much more tightly written and much more tightly plotted.Cooper has written five novels, the Leatherstocking Tales, that are all centered around this very virtuous, rough-hewn frontiersman, Natty Bumppo. He has his best friend, Chingachgook, who is the last of the Mohicans. He's the last of his tribe. And the two of these guys are basically very sad and stoic. Chingachgook is distanced from his tribe. Chingachgook has a tribe of Native Americans that he hates—I want to say it's the Huron. He's always like, “they're the bad ones,” and he's always fighting them. Then, Natty Bumppo doesn't really love settled civilization. He's not precisely at war with it, but he does not like the settlers. They're kind of stuck in the middle. They have various adventures, and I just thought it was so haunting and powerful.I've been reading a lot of other 19th-century American literature, and virtually none of it treats Native Americans with this kind of respect. There's a lot of diversity in the Native American characters; there's really an attempt to show how their society works and the various ways that leadership and chiefship works among them. There's this very haunting moment in The Last of the Mohicans, where this aged chief, Tamenund, comes out and starts speaking. This is a chief who, in American mythology, was famous for being a friend to the white people. But, James Fenimore Cooper writing in the 1820s has Tamenund come out at 80 years old and say, “we have to fight; we have to fight the white people. That's our only option.” It was just such a powerful moment and such a powerful book.I was really, really enthused. I read all of these Leatherstocking Tales. It was also a very strange experience to read these books that are generally supposed to be very turgid and boring, and then I read them and was like, “I understand. I'm so transported.” I understand exactly why readers in the 1820s loved this.Oliver: Which Walter Scott books do you like?Kanakia: I love all the Walter Scott books I've read, but the one I liked best was Kenilworth. Have you ever read Kenilworth?Oliver: I don't know that one.Kanakia: Yeah, it's about Elizabeth I, who had a romantic relationship with one of her courtiers.Oliver: The Earl of Essex?Kanakia: Yeah. She really thought they were going to get married, but then it turned out he was secretly married. Basically, I guess the implication is that he killed his wife in order to marry Queen Elizabeth I. It's a novel all about him and that situation, and it just felt very tightly plotted. I really enjoyed it.Oliver: What did you think of Rejection?Kanakia: Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte? Initially when I read this book, I enjoyed it, but I was like, “life cannot possibly be this sad.” It's five or six stories about these people who just have nothing going on. Their lives are so miserable, they can't find anyone to sleep with, and they're just doomed to be alone forever. I was like, “life can't be this bad.” But now thinking back over it, it is one of the most memorable books I've read in the last year. It really sticks with you. I feel like my opinion of this book has gone up a lot in retrospect.Oliver: How antisemitic is the House of Mirth?Kanakia: That is a hotly debated question, which I mentioned in my book. I think there has been a good case made that Edith Wharton, the author of House of Mirth, who was from an old New York family, was herself fairly antisemitic and did not personally like Jewish people. What she portrays in this book is that this old New York society also was highly suspicious of Jewish people and was organized to keep Jewish people out.In this book there is a rich Jewish man, Simon Rosedale, and there's a poor woman, Lily Bart. Lily Bart's main thing is whether she's going to marry the poor guy, Lawrence Selden, or the rich guy, Percy Gryce. She can't choose. She doesn't want to be poor, but she also is always bored by the rich guys. Meanwhile, through the whole book, there's Simon Rosedale, who's always like, “you should marry me.” He's the rich Jewish guy. He's like, “you should marry me. I will give you lots of money. You can do whatever you want.”Everybody else kind of just sees her as a woman and as a wife; he really sees her as an ally in his social climbing. That's his main motivation. The book is relatively clear that he has a kind of respect for her that nobody else does. Then, over the course of the book, she also gains a lot more respect for him. Basically, late in the book, she decides to marry him, but she has fallen a lot in the world. He's like, “that particular deal is not available anymore,” but he does offer her another deal that—although she finds it not to her taste—is still pretty good.He basically is like, “I'll give you some money, you'll figure out how to rehabilitate your reputation, and later down the line, we can figure something out.” So, I think with a great author like Edith Wharton, there's power in these portrayals. I felt it hard to come away from it feeling like the book is like a really antisemitic book.Oliver: Now, you note that the Great Books movement started out as something quite socially aspirational. Do you think it's still like that?Kanakia: I do think so. Yeah. For me, that's 100 percent what it was because I majored in econ. I always felt kind of inadequate as a writer against people who had majored in English. Then I started off as a science fiction writer, young adult writer, and I was like, “I'm going to read all these Great Books and then I'll have read the books that everybody else has read.” In my mind, that's also what it was—that there was some upper crust or literary society that was reading all these Great Books.That's really what did it. I do think there's still an element of aspiration to it because it's a club that you can join, that anyone can join. It's very straightforward to be a Great Books reader, and so I think there's still something there. I think because the Great Books movement has such a democratic quality to it, it actually doesn't get you to the top socially, which has always been the true, always been the case. But, that's okay. As long as you end up higher than where you started, that's fine.Oliver: What makes a book great?Kanakia: I talk about it this in the book, and I go through many different authors' conceptions of what makes a book great or what constitutes a classic. I don't know that anyone has come up with a really satisfying answer. The Horatian formulation from Horace—that a book is great or an author is great if it has lasted for a hundred years—is the one that seems to be the most accurate. Like, any book that's still being read a hundred years after it was written has a greatness.I do think that T. S. Eliott's formulation—that a civilization at its height produces certain literature and that literature partakes of the greatness of the civilization and summarizes the greatness of the civilization—does seem to have some kind of truth to it.But it's hard, right? Because the greatest French novel is In Search of Lost Time, but I don't know that anyone would say that the France in the 1920s was at its height. It's not a prescriptive thing, but it does seem like the way we read many of these Great Books, like Moby Dick, it feels like you're like communing with the entire society that produced it. So, maybe there's something there.Oliver: Now, you've used a list from Clifton Fadiman.Kanakia: Yes.Oliver: Rather than from Mortimer Adler or Harold Bloom or several others. Why this list?Kanakia: Well, the best reason is that it's actually the list I've just been using for the last 15 years. I went to a science fiction convention in 2009, Readercon, and at this science fiction convention was Michael Dirda, who was a Washington Post book critic. He had recently come out with his book, Classics for Pleasure, which I also bought and liked. But he said that the list he had always used was this Clifton Fadiman book. And so when I decided to start reading the Great Books, I went and got that book. I have perused many other lists over time, but that was always the list that seemed best to me.It seemed to have like the best mix. There's considerable variation amongst these lists, but there's also a lot of overlap. So any of these lists is going to have Dickens on it, and Tolstoy, and stuff like that. So really, you're just thinking about, “aside from Dickens and Tolstoy and George Eliot and Walt Whitman and all these people, who are the other 50 authors that you're going be reading?”The Mortimer Adler list is very heavy on philosophy. It has Plotinus on it. It has all these scientific works. I don't know, it didn't speak to me as much. Whereas, this Clifton Fadiman and John Major list has all these Eastern works on it. It has The Tale of Genji, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Story of the Stone, and that just spoke to me a little bit more.Oliver: What modern books will be on a future Great Books list, whether it's from someone alive or someone since the war.Kanakia: Have you ever heard of Robert Caro?Oliver: Sure.Kanakia: Yeah. I think his Lyndon Johnson books are great books. They have changed the field of biography. They're so complete, they seem to summarize an entire era, epoch. They're highly rated, but I feel like they're underrated as literature.What else? I was actually a little bit surprised in this Clifton Fadiman-John Major book, which came out in 1999, that there are not more African Americans in their list. Like, Invisible Man definitely seemed like a huge missed work. You know, it's hard. You would definitely want a book that has undergone enough critical evaluation that people are pretty certain that it is great. A lot of things that are more recent have not undergone that evaluation yet, but Invisible Man has, as have some works by Martin Luther King.Oliver: What about The Autobiography of Malcolm X?Kanakia: I would have to reread. I feel like it hasn't been evaluated much as a literary document.Oliver: Helen DeWitt?Kanakia: It's hard to say. It's so idiosyncratic, The Last Samurai, but it is certainly one of the best novels of the last 25 years.Oliver: Yeah.Kanakia: It is hard to say, because there's nothing else quite like it. But I would love if The Last Samurai was on a list like this; that would be amazing.Oliver: If someone wants to try the Great Books, but they think that those sort of classic 19th-century novels are too difficult—because they're long and the sentences are weird or whatever—what else should they do? Where else should they start?Kanakia: Well, it depends on what they're into, or it depends on their personality type. I think like there are people who like very, very difficult literature. There are people who are very into James Joyce and Proust. I think for some people the cost-benefit is better. If they're going to be pouring over some book for a long time, they would prefer if it was overtly difficult.If they're not like that, then I would say, there are many Great Books that are more accessible. Hemingway is a good one and Grapes of Wrath is wonderful. The 19th-century American books tend to be written in a very different register than the English books. If you read Moby Dick, it feels like it's written in a completely different language than Charles Dickens, even though they're writing essentially at the same time.Oliver: Is there too much Freud on the list that you've used?Kanakia: Maybe. I know that Interpretation of Dreams is on that list, which I've tried to read and have decided life is too short. I didn't really buy it, but I have read a fair amount of Freud. My impression of Freud was always that I would read Freud and somehow it would just seem completely fanciful or far out, like wouldn't ring true. But then when I started reading Freud, it was more the opposite. I was like, oh yeah, this seems very, very true.Like this battle between like the id and the ego and the super ego, and this feeling that like the psyche is at war with itself. Human beings really desire to be singular and exceptional, but then you're constantly under assault by the reality principle, which is that you're insignificant. That all seemed completely true. But then he tries to cure this somehow, which does not seem a curable problem. And he also situates the problem in some early sexual development, which also did not necessarily ring true. But no, I wouldn't say there's too much. Freud is a lot of fun. People should read Freud.Oliver: Which of the Great Books have you really not liked?Kanakia: I do get asked this quite a bit. I would say the Great Book that I really felt like—at least in translation—was not that rewarding in an unabridged version was Don Quixote. Because at least half the length of Don Quixote is these like interpolated novellas that are really long and tedious. I felt Don Quixote was a big slog. But maybe someday I'll go back and reread it and love it. Who knows?Oliver: Now you wrote that the question of biography is totally divorced from the question of what art is and how it operates. What do you think of George Orwell's supposition that if Shakespeare came back tomorrow, and we found out he used to rape children that we should—we would not say, you know, it's fine to carry on to doing that because he might write another King Lear.Kanakia: Well, if we discovered that Shakespeare was raping children, he should go to prison for that. No. It's totally divorced in both senses. You don't get any credit in the court of law because you are the writer of King Lear. If I murdered someone and then I was hauled in front of a judge and they were like, oh, Naomi's a genius, I wouldn't get off for murder. Nor should I get off for murder.So in terms of like whether we would punish Shakespeare for his crime of raping children, I don't think King Lear should count at all, but it's never used that way. It's never should someone go to prison or not for their crimes, because they're a genius. It's always used the other way, which is should we read King Lear knowing that the author raped children, but I also feel like that is immaterial. If you read King Lear, you're not enabling someone to rape children.Oliver: There's an almost endless amount of discussion these days about the Great Books and education and the value of the humanities, and what's the future of it all. What is your short opinion on that?Kanakia: My short opinion is that the Great Books at least are going to be fine. The Great Books will continue to be read, and they would even survive the university. All these books predate the university and they will survive the university. I feel like the university has stewarded literature in its own way for a while now and has made certain choices in that stewardship. I think if that stewardship was given up to more voluntary associations that had less financial support, then I think the choices would probably be very different. But I still think the greatest works would survive.Oliver: Now this is a quote from the book: “I am glad that reactionaries love the Great Books. They've invited a Trojan horse into their own camp.” Tell us what you mean by that.Kanakia: Let's say you believed in Christian theocracy, that you thought America should be organized on explicitly Christian principles. And because you believe in Christian theocracy, you organize a school that teaches the Great Books. Many of these schools that are Christian schools that have Great Books programs will also teach Nietzsche. They definitely put some kind of spin on Nietzsche. But they will teach anti-Christ, and that is a counterpoint to Christian morality and Christian theology. There are many things that you'll read in the Great Books that are corrosive to various kinds of certainties.If someone who I think is bad starts educating themselves in the Great Books, I don't think that the Great Books are going to make them worse from my perspective. So it's good.Oliver: How did reading the Mahabharata change you?Kanakia: Oh yeah, so the Mahabharata is a Hindu epic from, let's say, the first century AD. I'm Indian and most Indians are familiar with the basic outline of the Mahabharata story because it's told in various retellings, and there's a TV serial that my parents would rent from the Indian store growing up and we would watch it tape by tape. So I'm very familiar with it. Like there's never been a time I have not known this story.But I was also familiar with the idea that there is a written version in Sanskrit that's extremely long. It is 10 times as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. This Mahabharata story is not that long. I've read a version of it that's about 800 pages long. So how could something that's 10 times this long be the same? A new unabridged translation came out 10 years ago. So I started reading it, and it basically contains the entire Sanskrit Vedic worldview in it.I had never been exposed to this very coherently laid-out version of what I would call Hindu cosmology and ethics. Hindus don't really get taught those things in a very organized way. The book is basically about dharma, the principle of rightness and how this principle of rightness orders the universe and how it basically results in everybody getting their just deserts in various ways. As I was reading the book, I was like, this seems very true that there is some cosmic rebalancing here, and that everything does turn out more or less the way it should, which is not something that I can defend on a rational level.But just reading the book, it just made me feel like, yes, that is true. There is justice, the universe is organized by justice. It took me about a year to read the whole thing. I started waking up at 5:00 a.m. and reading for an hour each morning, and it just was a really magical, profound experience that brought me a lot closer to my grandmother's religious beliefs.Oliver: Is it ever possible to persuade someone with arguments that they should read literature, or is it just something that they have to have an inclination toward and then follow someone's example? Because I feel like we have so many columns and op-eds and “books are good because of X reason, and it's very important because of Y reason.” And like, who cares? No one cares. If you are persuaded, you take all that very seriously and you argue about what exactly are the precise reasons we should say. And if you're not persuaded, you don't even know this is happening.And what really persuades you is like, oh, Naomi sounds pretty compelling about the Mahabharata. That sounds cool. I'll try that. It's much more of a temperamental, feelingsy kind of thing. Is it possible to argue people into thinking about this differently? Or should we just be doing what we do and setting an example and hoping that people will follow.Kanakia: As to whether it's possible or not, I do not know. But I do think these columns are too ambitious. A thousand-word column and the imagined audience for this column is somebody who doesn't read books at all, who doesn't care about literature at all. And then in a thousand-word column, you're going to persuade them to care about literature. This is no good. It's so unnecessary.Whereas there's a much broader range of people who love to read books, but have never picked up Moby Dick or have never picked up Middlemarch, or who like maybe loved Middlemarch, but never thought maybe I should then go on and read Jane Austen and George Eliot.I think trying to shift people from “I don't read books at all; reading books is not something I do,” to being a Great Books card-carrying lover of literature is a lot. I really aim for a much lower result than that, which is to whatever extent people are interested in literature, they should pursue that interest. And as the rationalists would say, there's a lot of alpha in that; there's a lot to be gained from converting people who are somewhat interested into people who are very interested.Oliver: If there was a more widespread practice of humanism in education and the general culture, would that make America into a more liberal country in any way?Kanakia: What do you mean by humanism?Oliver: You know, the old-fashioned liberal arts approach, the revival of the literary journal culture, the sort of depolitical approach to literature, the way things used to be, as it were.Kanakia: It couldn't hurt. It couldn't hurt is my answer to that question.Oliver: Okay.Kanakia: What you're describing is basically the way I was educated. I went to Catholic school in DC at St. Anselm's Abbey School, in Northeast, DC, grade school. Highly recommend sending your little boys there. No complaints about the school. They talked about humanism all the time and all these civic virtues. I thought it was great. I don't know what people in other schools learn, but I really feel like it was a superior way of teaching.Now, you know, it was Catholic school, so a lot of people who graduated from my school are conservatives and don't really have the beliefs that I have, but that's okay.Oliver: Tell us about your reading habits.Kanakia: I read mostly ebooks. I really love ebooks because you can make the type bigger. I just read all the time. They vary. I don't wake up at 5:00 a.m. to read anymore. Sometimes if I feel like I'm not reading enough—because I write this blog, and the blog doesn't get written unless I'm reading. That's the engine, and so sometimes I set aside a day each week to read. But generally, the reading mostly takes care of itself.What I tend to get is very into a particular thing, and then I'll start reading more and more in that area. Recently, I was reading a lot of New Yorker stories. So I started reading more and more of these storywriters that have been published in the New Yorker and old anthologies of New Yorker stories. And then eventually I am done. I'm tired. It's time to move on.Oliver: But do you read several books at once? Do you make notes? Do you abandon books? How many hours a day do you read?Kanakia: Hours a day: Because my e-reader keeps these stats, I'd say 15 or 20 hours a week of reading. Nowadays because I write for the blog, I often think as I'm reading how I would frame a post about this. So I look for quotes, like what quote I would look at. I take different kinds of notes. I'll make more notes if I'm more confused by what is going on. Especially with nonfiction books, I'll try sometimes to make notes just to iron out what exactly I think is happening or what I think the argument is. But no, not much of a note taker.Oliver: What will you read next?Kanakia: What will I read next? Well, I've been thinking about getting back into Indian literature. Right now I'm reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. But there's an Indian novel called Jhootha Sach, which is a partition novel that is originally in Hindi. And it's also a thousand pages long, and is frequently compared to Les Miserables and War and Peace. So I'm thinking about tackling that finally.Oliver: Naomi Kanakia, thank you very much.Kanakia: Thanks for having me. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk
Attar's mystical Sufi masterpiece—a spiritual allegory of birds seeking their true king, the Simurgh. Translated by Edward Fitzgerald, narrated by Mark Cassidy with full subtitles.
Dr Edward Fitzgerald is the Health Equity and Access Co-Lead at KPMG International and Head of Healthcare & Life Sciences at KPMG Islands Group. He talks to Agenda about health care policy and the policy differences of delivering health services in Island situations. With spiralling health costs threatening the economic development of the Island he has some important lessons for us on how we can improve our health services and make them affordable. A useful dose of health policy medicine from the good doctor.
Writing to his brother from prison in 1949, a young African American man opens his letter citing these lines from a medieval Persian poet: Indeed the Idols I have loved so long, Have done my credit in this World much Wrong: Have dropped my Glory in a shallow Cup, And sold my Reputation for a song The writer would later achieve acclaim as the civil rights activist Malcolm X, and the lines he was citing were by Omar Khayyam, the subject of today's episode. Q1. Omar Khayyam was born in 1048CE in Nishapur, Iran. The Abbasid caliph in Baghdad was al-Qāʾim which was witnessing a so-called Sunni Revival with the ousting of the Caspian Zaydi Shia Buyid de facto control of the caliphate by the Turkic Sunni Seljuks in 1055CE. The Cold War with the rival Ismaili ShiaFatimid caliphate of Cairo was still at its height. Tell us more about the world of Omar Khayyam. Q2. He had an exemplary education becoming an authority in mathematics. He was employed as a head astronomer by the Seljuk regime and after the death of Sultan Malik-Shah, Omar Khayyam made hajj seemingly to allay suspicions about his own religious alignment. What else do we know about his life? Q3. Omar Khayyam is known in English through the popular Victorian translation by Edward Fitzgerald. But is it misleading to limit our knowledge of him to these series of translated quatrains. Q4. Omar Khayyam dies in 1131 aged 83 in his hometown. What has been his legacy, influence and genealogy? Q5. And finally before we end, please share with us a sample of Omar Khayyam's work in the original Persian with the translation. Further reading: The Wine of Wisdom: The Life, Poetry and Philosophy of Omar Khayyam — Mehdi Aminrazavi (original translations with an appendix dedicated to the Fitzgerald translations) Ali Hammoud: https://x.com/AliHammoud7777 https://alihammoud7.substack.com/ We are sponsored by IHRC bookshop. Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases. Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.
Tonight, for our Snoozecast+ Deluxe bonus episode, we'll read from "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" translated poetically into English by Edward Fitzgerald. This first edition, inspired by Persian rhymed quatrains, together known as a “rubaiyat”, were rooted in the 11th to 12th century. They reflect the philosophical musings of the original author Khayyam who was not only a poet, but an accomplished mathematician and astronomer. As a seminal piece of Persian literature, the collection delves into themes related to the transience of life, love, and the pursuit of happiness amidst the inevitability of death. The content of the "Rubaiyat" encapsulates a dialogue between the speaker and the cosmos, often expressed through the metaphor of wine and revelry. The Rubáiyát also made its way into American pop culture, perhaps most charmingly in the classic 1957 musical The Music Man. In one scene, it's cited as one of the books the mayor's wife wants banned from the town library. The book's verses are condemned for their supposed licentiousness—proof, perhaps, of just how intoxicating these quatrains have always been. Though in truth, the work is more meditative than scandalous, filled with musings on time, nature, and the fleeting sweetness of life. — read by 'V' — Sign up for Snoozecast+ Deluxe to get expanded, ad-free access by going to snoozecast.com/plus! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
#meditation #manifesting #healing It was wonderful to catch up with 3 of the speakers from the New Earth Summit, Deborah Jane Sutton, Edward Fitzgerald and Sarita Sol. More gems of wisdom and personal experiences were shared about how we can navigate these times, especially as the unconscious becomes conscious. We discussed how to manage behavior in the external that is being acted out in the collective field right now.Alison can be found @Sensitive-Spirit
Guest: Juan Cole is a public intellectual, prominent blogger and essayist, and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He is the translator of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian. Omar Khayyam (1048 – 1131) was a Persian astronomer and mathematician born in Nishapur in northeastern Iran who lived and worked at the courts of the Seljuk dynasty. Modern scholars agree that there is very little (if any) of the collected work of poetry know as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam that can be certainly attributed to the historical figure. A tradition of attribution grew up in the centuries after Khayyam's death which culminated in Edward Fitzgerald's translation in the 19th Century. The post KPFA Special – The History Behind The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam appeared first on KPFA.
This episode of the #citizencosmos podcast features Edward FitzGerald Chief Technology Officer at Fetch.ai An “open” collective learning system that enables privacy-preserving collaborative machine learning and inferences on the Fetch.ai network Fetch.ai is a blockchain platform that uses artificial intelligence to help people automate everyday tasks such as booking a parking space or a flight We spoke to Edward (https://twitter.com/EFG_AI) about Fetch AI (fetch.ai) and: - Journey to the top of corporate - AI - Distributed systems - Full tolerance shenanigans - Being a cog in a larger machine - The importance of rapid decision making in business - The cost of making the wrong decisions - The beast that is decentralization - Mistakes will happen, but facilitates adaptation. - Proof of work as the most elegant solution - Actively seeking hard problems - Healthy Paranoia - Open source vs Closed source - The lifecycle of corporations - The power of the web3 structure - Critical safety systems - The difference between and dec ai - The advantage of tangible technology - Barriers of entry - Connectivity of autonomous services - Large Language models and new efficiencies - Architecture of the Agents - The birth of SkyNet - Affects of AI on the wider society - Hierarchy of abstraction - One big model to rule them all If you like what we do at Citizen Cosmos: - Stake with Citizen Cosmos validator (https://www.citizencosmos.space/staking) - Help support the project via Gitcoin Grants (https://gitcoin.co/grants/1113/citizen-cosmos-podcast) - Listen to the YouTube version (https://youtu.be/vj4dipYHIDY) - Read our blog (https://citizen-cosmos.github.io/manuscripts/) - Check out our GitHub (https://github.com/citizen-cosmos/Citizen-Cosmos) - Join our Telegram (https://t.me/citizen_cosmos) - Follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/cosmos_voice) - Sign up to the RSS feed (https://www.citizencosmos.space/rss) Special Guest: Edward FitzGerald.
Dimitri and Khalid take an overly ambitious, ill-advised deep dive into the immense dracularity surrounding the Titanic disaster of 1912, including: The resurgence of Titanic conspiracy theories following the June 2023 Titan disaster, predictive programming in Hauptmann's “Atlantis” and “The Wreck of the Titan; or, Futility”, muckraker and Spiritualist William T. Stead's cursed mummy rumor, a lost bejeweled copy of the possibly cursed Rubaiyat of Omar Kayyam, the Wreck of the Edward Fitzgerald, the Somerset Man, the role of Marconi's wireless telegraph, the inexplicably sus behavior of SS Californian Captain Stanley Lord, Morgan's men covering up the Californian's duplicity, the shameful survival of White Star Line owner J. Bruce Ismay, what JP Morgan was or wasn't up to, and “The Rescue of the Third Class of the Titanic: A Revisionist History”. Part one of two. For access to full-length Patreon episodes, upcoming installments of DEMON FORCES, and the SJ Grotto of Truth Discord, subscribe to the Al-Wara' Frequency at patreon.com/subliminaljihad.
Abstract: In the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, based upon verses composed by an eleventh-century Persian mathematician and astronomer, the English Victorian poet Edward FitzGerald eloquently portrays human life in an indifferent, deterministic universe that lacks any evident purpose and is bereft of divine Providence. The poem's suggested response to such a universe is an unambitious […] The post “In This Batter'd Caravanserai” first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.
ePub feed of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
Abstract: In the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, based upon verses composed by an eleventh-century Persian mathematician and astronomer, the English Victorian poet Edward FitzGerald eloquently portrays human life in an indifferent, deterministic universe that lacks any evident purpose and is bereft of divine Providence. The poem's suggested response to such a universe is an unambitious […] The post “In This Batter'd Caravanserai” first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.
PDF feed of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
Abstract: In the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, based upon verses composed by an eleventh-century Persian mathematician and astronomer, the English Victorian poet Edward FitzGerald eloquently portrays human life in an indifferent, deterministic universe that lacks any evident purpose and is bereft of divine Providence. The poem's suggested response to such a universe is an unambitious […] The post “In This Batter'd Caravanserai” first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.
Hector Hugh Munro, conocido por el nombre literario de Saki (Akyab, Birmania Británica, 18 de diciembre de 1870 - Beaumont-Hamel, Francia, 14 de noviembre de 1916), fue un escritor, novelista y dramaturgo británico. Sus agudos y, en ocasiones, macabros cuentos recrearon irónicamente la sociedad y la cultura victorianas en que vivió. Ether Munro, que tras la muerte de su hermano se convirtió en su albacea y destruyó todos los papeles que consideró inadecuados, explica en la biografía oficial, incluida en el volumen póstumo El huevo cuadrado, que Saki era un gran admirador de la poesía persa y las historias orientales y que el origen del pseudónimo se encuentra en Rubaiyyat de Omar Jayyam. Esta obra del poeta persa del siglo XII alcanzó una gran fama en la cultura inglesa de segunda mitad del siglo XIX en la adaptación de Edward Fitzgerald. En la última cuarteta del poeta aparece la palabra saki, que en persa significa copero. Según esta versión, el pseudónimo constituiría un homenaje a una obra admirada.
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Ken Macdonald and Tim Owen talk to Edward Fitzgerald QC about crime, punishment, God, redemption and the ethics of defending bad people.
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For years I've loved to recite Omar Khayyam (1048-113 as translated by the master Victorian wordsong writer Edward FitzGerald. “Myself, when young, did eagerly frequent / Doctor and sage…” I owe the Persian poet two things: (1) a gently melancholy but likeable skepticism which at the same time says ‘Enjoy the moment!” and (2) a beautiful verse form with rhyme patter AABA. Pp. 14-15 show how I tried to “improve” the Omar four-line stanza. P. 17 show how I started to interbreed the Omar stanza with model-quatrains I learned from the ancient Greeks and Romans. The beauty of form and the commonsense cheerfulness of my mood always seemed to be carrying on Omar's legacy as he might have liked. Now let me show you some fruits of my Omar-pilgrimage: (1) The game of tag, rewakened, spring = open the door, and write. (2) A Shakespeare Episode = write up the play you've just read. (3) Who sing become what they proclaim = daily life recalls Sufi tradition. (4) Do I need to surrender to sleep? Will my dreaming = rhythm of thought. (40) E-mail to Lucy – and replies from two German “almanac” poets. (46) Jotted Rubaiyat – and a world of dying-god myths (blogatelle 46) (51) Moon Guardian Steadfast of the Way – Korean music on the shamisen (68) That wine's a problem I'm aware – personality portrait of Persian poet Hafiz (77) A Prayer of Love – simple Omar-style quatrain with simple Omar-type reply
Having to rebuild from the inside out whilst attempting to maintain appearances proves tricky once you realise who you are and creating the distinction between that and your circumstances proves rewarding. Edward Fitzgerald retells a part of his story. --**--**-- Twitter/Instagram: @_CuriousAnarchy
Omar Khayyam is renowned for his work on mathematics and astronomy. He designed the most accurate calendar, the Jalali calendar which is more accurate than the Gregorian calendar. Keywords: Rubaiyat of Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald, Euclid, Nowruz*Follow: Free Astronomy & Science: https://www.freeastroscience.com
At 7pm on the evening of November 30,1948, John Lyon and his wife were walking along Somerton Beach, just south of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. They noticed a well dressed man lying on the beach with his head propped up against the sea wall. The man was lying with his legs outstretched and his feet crossed. As the couple passed, they saw him raise his right arm and then it fell to the sand. John said it looked like a "drunken attempt to smoke a cigarette". A half hour later they were walking back the same way and noticed the same man was still there. There he was in his nice suit and polished shoes, an odd way to dress for lounging on the beach. He was still with his left arm laid out on the beach. The couple figured he was asleep, maybe passed out drunk. There were mosquitos buzzing all around his face. John commented to his wife "he must be dead to the world". The next morning John Lyons would discover how right he was. As he was returning from a morning swim, John noticed a cluster of people gathered around the area where he had seen the drunk man the day before. As he approached the group he saw a man slumped over in much the same position as the man from yesterday. The body was lying there, legs out, feet crossed, cigarette half smoked lying on his collar, but this man was not drunk, he was dead. This was the man John and his wife saw the day before, this was the Somerton Man! This case endures to this day as one of the greatest mysteries of Australia. No one is sure who the man is, why he ended up dead on the beach, or even how he died. Dr. John Barkley Bennett put the time of death at no earlier than 2 a.m., noted the likely cause of death as heart failure, and added that he suspected poisoning. The contents of the man's pockets were spread out on a table: tickets from Adelaide to the beach, a pack of chewing gum, some matches, two combs and a pack of Army Club cigarettes containing seven cigarettes of another, more expensive brand called Kensitas. There was no wallet and no cash, and no ID. None of the man's clothes had any name tags—indeed, in all but one case the maker's label had been carefully snipped away. One trouser pocket had been neatly repaired with an unusual variety of orange thread. A day later a full autopsy was carried out and revealed some more strange things. It revealed that the corpse's pupils were “smaller” than normal and “unusual,” that a dribble of saliva had run down the side of the man's mouth as he lay, and that “he was probably unable to swallow it.” His spleen, meanwhile, “was strikingly large and firm, about three times normal size,” and the liver was distended with congested blood. In his stomach they found his last meal and more blood. He had eaten a pasty, a folded pastry with a savoury filling, typically of seasoned meat and vegetables. The blood in the stomach also suggested poisoning but there was no evidence that the food was the cause of any poisoning. The poisoning theory seemed to concur with the strange behavior the man exhibited on the beach, instead of drunken behavior it could have been the behavior of a man who had been suffering the effects of poisoning. Now, while this theory made sense given the evidence, repeated tests on both his blood and organs by an expert chemist failed to reveal the faintest trace of a poison. “I was astounded that he found nothing,” Dwyer admitted at the inquest. In fact, no cause of death was found. Among all this weirdness, other odd things were noticed. The dead man's calf muscles were high and very well developed; although in his late 40s, he had the legs of an athlete. His toes, meanwhile, were oddly wedge-shaped. Testimony given by one experts went as follows: I have not seen the tendency of calf muscle so pronounced as in this case…. His feet were rather striking, suggesting—this is my own assumption—that he had been in the habit of wearing high-heeled and pointed shoes. Another expert had suggested that given these irregularities that maybe the man was actually a ballet dancer. Putting all this together made… Well… Zero sense. The coroner was informed by an eminent professor that the only practical solution was that a very rare poison had been used—one that “decomposed very early after death,” leaving no trace. The only poisons capable of this were so dangerous and deadly that the professor would not say their names aloud in open court. (My mind goes to Ricin, a highly potent toxin produced in the seeds of the castor oil plant.) Instead, he passed the coroner a scrap of paper on which he had written the names of two possible candidates: digitalis and strophanthin. The professor suspected the latter. Strophanthin is a rare glycoside derived from the seeds of some African plants. Historically, it was used by a little-known Somali tribe to poison arrows. At this point everyone was thoroughly and extremely confused. They took a full set of fingerprints and sent them all over Australia and then around the work to try and figure out who this guy was. There were no matches anywhere. They started bringing people with missing relatives into the mortuary to see if anyone recognized the man, no one did. By January 11, the South Australia police had investigated and dismissed pretty much every lead they had. The investigation was now widened in an attempt to locate any abandoned personal possessions, perhaps left luggage, that might suggest that the dead man had come from out of state. This meant checking every hotel, dry cleaner, lost property office and railway station for miles around. But it did produce results. On the 12th, detectives sent to the main railway station in Adelaide were shown a brown suitcase that had been deposited in the cloakroom there on November 30. The staff could remember nothing about the owner, and the case's contents were not much more revealing. The case did contain a reel of orange thread identical to that used to repair the dead man's trousers, but painstaking care had been applied to remove practically every trace of the owner's identity. The case bore no stickers or markings, and get this, a label had been torn off from one side. The tags were missing from all but three items of the clothing inside; these bore the name “Kean” or “T. Keane,” but it proved impossible to trace anyone of that name, and the police concluded–an Adelaide newspaper reported–that someone “had purposely left them on, knowing that the dead man's name was not ‘Kean' or ‘Keane.' ” So, a subterfuge! Spy games! (I just love that word) The police had brought in another expert, John Cleland, emeritus professor of pathology at the University of Adelaide, to re-examine the corpse and the dead man's possessions. In April, four months after the discovery of the body, Cleland's search produced a final piece of evidence—one that would prove to be the most baffling of all. Cleland discovered a small pocket sewn into the waistband of the dead man's trousers. Previous examiners had missed it, and several accounts of the case have referred to it as a “secret pocket,” but it seems to have been intended to hold a pocket watch. Inside, tightly rolled, was a minute scrap of paper, which, opened up, proved to contain two words, typeset in an elaborate printed script. The phrase read “Tamám Shud.” Frank Kennedy, the police reporter for the Adelaide Advertiser, recognized the words as Persian, and telephoned the police to suggest they obtain a copy of a book of poetry—the Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam. This work, written in the twelfth century, had become popular in Australia during the war years in a much-loved translation by Edward FitzGerald. It existed in numerous editions, but the usual intricate police enquiries to libraries, publishers and bookshops failed to find one that matched the fancy type. At least it was possible, however, to say that the words “Tamám shud” (or “Taman shud,” as several newspapers misprinted it—a mistake perpetuated ever since) did come from Khayyam's romantic reflections on life and mortality. They were, in fact, the last words in most English translations— not surprisingly, because the phrase means “It is ended.” Weeeeird! Taken at face value, this new clue suggested that the death might be a case of suicide; in fact, the South Australia police never did turn their “missing person” enquiries into a full-blown murder investigation. But the discovery took them no closer to identifying the dead man, and in the meantime his body had begun to decompose. Arrangements were made for a burial, but—being aware that they were disposing of one of the few pieces of evidence they had—the police first had the corpse embalmed, and a cast taken of the head and upper torso. After that, the body was buried, sealed under concrete in a plot of dry ground specifically chosen in case it became necessary to exhume it. Oddly enough, As late as 1978, flowers would be found at odd intervals on the grave, but no one could ascertain who had left them there, or why. In July, a full eight months after the investigation had begun, the search for the right Rubaiyat produced results. On the 23rd, a Glenelg man walked into the Detective Office in Adelaide with a copy of the book and a strange story. Early the previous December, just after the discovery of the unknown body, he had gone for a drive with his brother-in-law in a car he kept parked a few hundred yards from Somerton Beach. The brother-in-law had found a copy of the Rubaiyat lying on the floor by the rear seats. Each man had silently assumed it belonged to the other, and the book had sat in the glove compartment ever since. Alerted by a newspaper article about the search, the two men had gone back to take a closer look. They found that part of the final page had been torn out, together with Khayyam's final words. They went to the police. Detective Sergeant Lionel Leane took a close look at the book. Almost at once he found a telephone number penciled on the rear cover; using a magnifying glass, he dimly made out the faint impression of some other letters, written in capitals underneath. Finally they had a solid clue! So where did the clue lead them? Well the phone number was unlisted. But have no fear… They traced the number to a nurse who lived near Somerton Beach. The nurse has never been publicly identified. She is only known by the nickname Jestyn. She revealed to investigators that she had indeed given that book to a friend of hers, a man she knew in the war. She also gave them a name, Alfred Boxall. Boom! Mystery solved!!! Right? Well maybe not so much. Detectives felt they had figured out the identity of the dead man. Except for the fact that when they tracked down Alfred Boxall in new south wales… He was still alive. Oh and also, the copy of the book he received from the nurse… He still had it and it was still intact. The gentle probing that the nurse received did yield some intriguing bits of information though; interviewed again, she recalled that some time the previous year—she could not be certain of the date—she had come home to be told by neighbors that an unknown man had called and asked for her. And, confronted with the cast of the dead man's face, Jestyn seemed “completely taken aback, to the point of giving the appearance she was about to faint,” Leane said. She seemed to recognize the man, yet firmly denied that he was anyone she knew. That left the faint impression Sergeant Leane had noticed in the Glenelg Rubaiyat. Examined under ultraviolet light, five lines of jumbled letters could be seen, the second of which had been crossed out. The first three were separated from the last two by a pair of straight lines with an ‘x' written over them. It seemed that they were some sort of code. They sent the message to Naval Intelligence, home to the finest cipher experts in Australia, and allowed the message to be published in the press. This produced a frenzy of amateur codebreaking, almost all of it worthless, and a message from the Navy concluding that the code appeared unbreakable: “From the manner in which the lines have been represented as being set out in the original, it is evident that the end of each line indicates a break in sense. There is an insufficient number of letters for definite conclusions to be based on analysis, but the indications together with the acceptance of the above breaks in sense indicate, in so far as can be seen, that the letters do not constitute any kind of simple cipher or code. The frequency of the occurrence of letters, whilst inconclusive, corresponds more favourably with the table of frequencies of initial letters of words in English than with any other table; accordingly a reasonable explanation would be that the lines are the initial letters of words of a verse of poetry or such like.” The Australian police never cracked the code or identified the unknown man. The nurse, Jestyn died in 2007, so there's no possibility of ever getting her to reveal why she reacted the way she did when seeing the cast of the man. And when the South Australia coroner published the final results of his investigation in 1958, his report concluded with the admission: I am unable to say who the deceased was… I am unable to say how he died or what was the cause of death. And that's where the case sits And that's it… Thank you guys and good night. Oh wait… You want more? Fine. The information on the initial case and investigation came from a great article on smithsonianmag.com There… Still not enough…ok ok So what about this nurse then. Turns out her actual name is Jessica Thompson and she passed in 2007 as stated earlier. Police had always felt she knew more than she was letting on. Her daughter would later say in an interview that she thought her mother knew the dead man. The reason her message was not released earlier is because she requested a pseudonym as she felt her connection to this case would be embarrassing. Why? Interesting. Some think that her real name is important because it may hold the key to deciphering the code. As stated earlier, her reaction to seeing the cast of the man led many people to think that she definitely knew the man. In a video we found the man who made the bust describes how when Jessica was brought in to see the bust she saw the likeness when a sheet was removed from it and immediately looked down and would not look at the bust again for the rest of the interview. It was during that interview that she gave them the information of Alfred Boxall. So the question remains with Jessica… Did she know the man? If she did know the man, why was she so informed to distance herself from this case? Was she involved in some way? As far as the man himself, there are many theories floating around. One of the most prevailing theories is that he was a spy! We got us some James bond shit going down! Or maybe not. Others say he was involved in the black market as evidence but the clipped labels on his clothing. So he was dealing in babies and knock off clothing on the black market!!! Maybe not. Well let's look into these theories and see what you guys think. One man who thinks there is a spy connection is Gordon Cramer, a former British detective with links to former intelligence officers. He says parts of the code match with Morse code letters found in the World War II Radio Operators Manual. He believed micro writing hidden within the letters of the five lines of code appeared to refer to the de Havilland Venom — a British post-war jet, still on the drawing board at the time. He also saw the Somerton Man's death coinciding with the start of the Cold War and, according to Mr Cramer, the visit to Adelaide of high-ranking British officials and weapons trials at Woomera — the later site of nuclear testing. So this guy thinks that's a link to show he may have been some sort of cold war spy. Other things that people say pointing to him being a spy include the family of our nurse friend telling 60 minutes Jestyn, aka Jessica Thomson may have been a Russian spy! And even crazier… That she may have had a son with the Somerton Man! This theory is further backed by another article we found. Derek Abbott, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Adelaide has spent over a decade studying the case. “What makes this kind of go viral is, I think, just all the strange things. It kind of just gives you that creepy shiver down your spine.” DNA, Abbott said, is a key to solving the mystery. “I'm not so interested in how he died, but giving him his name back is the most important thing.” Abbott also noticed that the man also had two distinctive features: canines next to middle teeth and ears with large upper hollows. After examining the mysterious letters of the code in the late 2000s, Dr. Abbott said, “I kind of fell down the rabbit hole.” In 2009 he tried to track down Mrs. Thomson (our nurse friend) for an interview but found that she had died two years earlier. She had a son who had been a DUN DUN DUNNNN professional ballet dancer, Dr. Abbott learned, and photos showed he had distinctive teeth and ears similar to the Somerton man's. Oh shit son! Abbott decided to then track down this man but unfortunately he had died mere months before Abbott made his discovery. COINCIDENCE?? He found out that Thomson's son had a daughter of his own… So guess what… He tracked her down. And guess what… SHE was dead… Actually no that's not true she's still alive. The woman's name was Rachel Egan. Ms. Egan had never heard of the Somerton man, but she agreed to help Dr. Abbott in his effort to name the man who might be her grandfather. Dr. Abbott laid out that scenario: “The Somerton man had Jessica Thomson's number. He was found dead a five minutes' walk from her house. Rachel's dad was only 1 year old at the time, with no father. So you kind of put two and two together — but until it's absolutely confirmed, you never know.” And Dr. Abbott acknowledged that, if usable DNA was obtained from the exhumed remains, it might in fact show his wife had no link to the Somerton man. “All I can say is there's lots of twists and turns in this case, and every turn is pretty weird,” he said. Want another weird twist? Abbott and Egan fell in love and were married in 2010. And yes that part is true. So, while he himself doesn't necessarily back the spy theory, his life of work could lend credence to said theory. Several years ago, Ms. Egan had her DNA analyzed, and links were found to people in the United States (including relatives of some guy named Thomas Jefferson… yes, that Thomas Jefferson). More recently, links were also found to the grandparents of the man that Jessica Thomson eventually married. “So my head is spinning,” Dr. Abbott said. “Does that prove she's not connected now to the Somerton man? Or does that prove that somehow the Somerton man is related to her assumed grandfather? It's getting all complicated, so complicated that I'm just going to shut up now and let the DNA from the Somerton man speak for itself.” Another strange connection that could lend itself to a spot connection is the remarkable similarities to the Mystery of the Isdal woman. On November 29, 1970, while hiking Isdalen (Ice Valley) near Bergen, Norway, a father and his two daughters witnessed a horrifying sight. Wedged between the rocks of the hiking trail, they discover a badly burnt female body. The labels of her clothes had been cut off and any distinctive marks had been removed as if to make her completely unrecognizable. The front side of her body had been severely burnt and she was found in a boxer's position, fists clenched. When you look into this case there are many similarities to the Somerton Man that we may just go ahead and cover in a bonus! Again, Thomson's own daughter believed the Somerton Man to be a spy and that her own mother may have also been a spy. She said her mother taught English to migrants and spoke fluent Russian. Jessica had once told her daughter that “someone higher than the police force” also knew the identity of the mysterious man. Another theory is that the Somerton Man was involved in illegal activities involving the black market that sprung up after WWII. People point to the missing labels on the clothes as pointing toward that possibility. Abbott who we discussed earlier had said that this seems a more likely route than the spy route. If he was involved in some sort of black market goings on or something similar, it would definitely explain the urge for someone to go to many lengths to keep his identity a secret. But what would the rest of the clues mean? Was the page or of the book meant to send a message to someone else? Some think the code found may have had something to do with black market shipments or deliveries, or possibly locations. Without solid evidence though this is pretty much all just speculation. Many people are also subscribing to the theory that this was just a case of a jilted lover. They believe that the Somerton Man and the nurse were lovers and that they had a child together. After this some people think that Thomson rejected the Somerton Man for some reason and it led to the man taking his own life. This theory seems most plausible but at the same time, why has no one been able to figure out who this man was. It also makes sense in the line of Thomson being embarrassed by being involved in the case and her unwillingness to discuss it with police as she was dating another man at the time of the death who would eventually become her husband. If you really want to get crazy with the cheese whiz so to speak, there are small groups of people that really are looking at the fringe theories. If you look into the far corners of reddit and other similar sites you'll find the usual theories of time travel and extraterrestrial origins. Those folks are definitely in the small minority but they are out there and most likely started by Mr. Moody. Ok so where does all the craziness leave us? Well… We don't know. The Somerton man's body was exhumed earlier this year and we haven't been able to find any updates on any sort of DNA analysis, because as we know, these things tend to take some time. In articles as recent as July of this year they are still waiting on results. Part of the problem is that getting quality DNA samples from that old and degraded of a body can sometimes be difficult. So, while there are many theories on who the man was and the circumstances around his death no one knows for sure who he was and what happened. The one person who seemed to have at least some sort of knowledge of the man passed away without ever revealing her secrets. The other difficult thing is that every time a question seems to be answered it only opens up even more questions. Is the code really a code? Was the man a spy? Was the nurse a spy? Was anyone a spy? Was chainsaw involved? Where was he in 1948? As the old tootsie pop commercial used to say… the world may never know! Best horror movies of 1948 https://www.pickthemovie.com/best-horror-movies-of-1948
Evolution of the Irish from Biblical times
Fiorella Files Episdoe 56-The Silk Roads, The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam, The Bookseller Of Tehran The Silk Roads – Peter Frankopan If you want to read a really challenging book, this is the one for you. The Silk Roads looks at the history of the East, encouraging readers to see the East rather than the West as the centre of the world and to consider the major events of history – including western involvement in the East – from a completely different perspective. Highly informative if difficult reading. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Float away across the centuries into quatrains of a stunning poem that may or may not have been written by the legendary polymath, Omar Khayyam. Since its translation into English by Edward FitzGerald in the nineteenth century, the Rubaiyat has been enduringly popular among western readers and remains one of the most influential poems translated during the Victorian era. The Bookseller of Tehran – Marjan Kamali It is the 1950s and Iran is in a state of political flux, with different factions fighting for control of the country's soul. In the midst of this turbulence, two young people fall in love only to be parted on what should have been their wedding day. What happened to young Bahman on that fateful afternoon? Why did he vanish from the life of the girl he claimed to love? What part did Mr Fakhri, the enigmatic bookseller, play in all this? It will take years of searching for the truth to emerge… Our Readers And Listeners Keep Us In Print & On The Air! Click here to subscribe to The CRUSADE Channel's Founders Pass Member Service & Gain 24/7 Access to Our Premium, New Talk Radio Service. www.crusadechannel.com/go What Is The Crusade Channel? The CRUSADE Channel, The Last LIVE! Radio Station Standing begins our LIVE programming with our all original CRUSADE Channel News hosted by Ron Staffard. Coupled with Mike “The King Dude” Church entertaining you during your morning drive and Rick Barrett giving you the news of the day and the narrative that will follow during your lunch break! We've interviewed over 300 guests, seen Brother Andre Marie notch his 200th broadcast of Reconquest; The Mike Church Show over 1200 episodes; launched an original LIVE! News Service; written and produced 4 Feature Length original dramas including The Last Confession of Sherlock Holmes and set sail on the coolest radio product ever, the 5 Minute Mysteries series! We were the ONLY RADIO outlet to cover the Impeachment Trials of President Trump from gavel to gavel! Now that you have discovered The Crusade, get 30 days for FREE of our premium News-Talk Radio service just head to: https://crusadechannel.com OR download our FREE app: https://apps.appmachine.com/theveritasradionetworkappIti- If you are interested in supporting small business, be sure to check out the official store of the Crusade Channel, the Founders Tradin Post! Not to mention our amazing collection of DVD's, Cigars, T-Shirts, bumper stickers and other unique selection of items selected by Mike Church! Find out about the The Silk Roads
Leading physician with 20 years of healthcare experience, Dr Edward Fitzgerald has a deep understanding of global trends and healthcare innovation which he has kindly shared with us.
Today we celebrate an old poet who loved gardens, We'll also learn about an inventor and architect who created a large machine to help move established trees during the establishment of Prospect Park. We hear a delightful excerpt about a purée of spring vegetables. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a beautiful set of Paper Flower Cards - a little stationery set for the gardener today. And then, we’ll wrap things up with a British philosopher, mathematician, and author who won the 1950 Nobel Prize for literature. He spent a great deal of time studying happiness, and no surprise - he found it in a garden. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org Curated News Gardening 101: Solomon’s Seal | Gardenista | Marie Viljoen Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you’d search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 18, 1048 Today is the birthday of the Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet Omar Khayyam (“Ky-yem”). In 1859, the British writer Edward FitzGerald translated and published Omar’s signature work, The Rubáiyát (“Rue-By-yat”). In The Rubáiyát, Omar wrote some beautiful garden verses: I sometimes think that never blooms so red The rose that grows where some once buried Caesar bled And that every hyacinth the garden grows dropped in her lap from Some once lovely head. Today in Iran, tourists can visit the beautiful mausoleum of Omar Khayyam and the surrounding gardens. And gardeners in zones 4-9 can grow a pretty pink damask rose named Rosa 'Omar Khayyam.' Over on the Missouri Botanical Garden website, they report that, “'Omar Khayyam' ... is reputed to have grown on the tomb of Omar Khayyam in Persia, [and] was brought to England by William Simpson, an Illustrated London News artist, and in 1893 was planted on the grave of Edward Fitzgerald, who translated the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam into English. According to the Modern Roses 12 database of the American Rose Society, it was registered in 1894. It is a small, dense shrub with grayish-green, downy foliage and numerous prickles. Its clear pink, double flowers are 2 in. wide with a small center eye and 26 to 40 petals. Blooming once per season in late spring to early summer, the flowers are moderately fragrant and in groups of 3 to 4. 'Omar Khayyam' grows 2 to 3 ft. tall and wide.” May 18, 1839 Today is the birthday of the American civil engineer, landscape architect, inventor, and plantsman John Yapp Culyer. John was commissioned to work on parks in major cities across America - like Chicago and Pittsburgh. He was the Chief Landscape Engineer of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, which opened to the public in 1867. During his time at Prospect Park, John invented a machine to help relocate large trees. His impressive tree-movers (he had two of them built) moved established trees and placed large specimen trees from nurseries. In February 1870, the Brooklyn Eagle reported that John’s tree-moving machines had relocated 600 trees - a feat in scope that had never been attempted. To aid with pruning old-growth forest trees, John invented the extension ladder. John’s ladders would stand on a platform and extend over fifty feet in the air. The New York Historical Society shares photos of John’s workers on these ladders, and the images are breathtaking - the danger of working on those ladders is so obviously apparent. Unearthed Words “Beef consommé or purée of spring vegetables," she read aloud. "I suppose I'll have the consommé." "You'd choose weak broth over spring vegetables?" "I've never had much of an appetite." "No, just listen: the cook sends for a basket of ripe vegetables from the kitchen gardens- leeks, carrots, young potatoes, vegetable marrow, tomatoes- and simmers them with fresh herbs. When it's all soft, she purées the mixture until it's like silk and finishes it with heavy cream. It's brought to the table in an earthenware dish and ladled over croutons fried in butter. You can taste the entire garden in every spoonful.” ― Lisa Kleypas, a best-selling American author of historical and contemporary romance novels, Devil's Daughter Grow That Garden Library Paper Flowers Cards and Envelopes: The Art of Mary Delany by Princeton Architectural Press “Each exquisite paper flower in this elegant collection blooms with extraordinary detail and color. Eighteenth-century British artist Mary Delany created each piece by cutting and layering tiny pieces of paper on black ink backgrounds. The fine shading and depth are as intricately detailed as a botanical illustration and scientifically accurate as well. Printed on thick, textured paper, the set features sunflowers, rhododendron, cornflower, water lilies, and more. Perfect for any occasion that warrants beauty and sophistication.” You can get a set of Stationery featuring The Art of Mary Delany by Princeton Architectural Press and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $15 Today’s Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart May 18, 1872 Today is the birthday of the British philosopher, mathematician, pacifist, and author Bertrand Russell. Bertrand won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950 for his work called A History of Western Philosophy (1945). One of Bertrand’s first works was about happiness and how to find it. He wrote, “Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.” Bertrand also wrote: “I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite.” And “The happiest person I have ever known is my gardener, who each day wages war to protect vegetables and flowers from rabbits.” As for the cure for anxiety, Bertrand once told this story, “I knew a parson who frightened his congregation terribly by telling them that the second coming was very imminent indeed, but they were much consoled when they found that he was planting trees in his garden.” When it came to the natural world, Bertrand recognized the limits of the earth’s natural resources, and he liked to say, "It's co-existence or no existence." It was Bertrand’s study of happiness that led him to recognize the power of hope. He wrote, "Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that but hope and enterprise and change." Bertrand hoped that humankind would get smarter about the natural world and our planet. He wrote, “The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Lauren Murphy and Eamon Sweeney review new albums from Lana Del Rey, Justin Bieber, punk band New Pagans, fiddle player Chris Stout and the RTÉ Orchestra, Laura McKenna’s debut book 'Words to Shape My Name' is the story of two men, a former slave, Tony Small and his friend the Irish Lord, Edward Fitzgerald, historian Richard Aldous reviews.
On Thursday January 14th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a commentary on and a reading of the Rubaiyat a Sufi poem from medieval Persia by the mystic and astronomer Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald and published in 1859. The Rubaiyat is quintessentially romantic in style and content. It is said to reflect the ancient cyrenaic hedonistic philosophy of Aristippus and extols a libertine lifestyle in preference to piety. When I was a teenager I needed to break away from Christian fundamentalism so I adopted the Rubaiyat as my alternative to the Bible. I memorized the entire poem so that I could quote seductive passages to Baptist virgins while drinking beer on the beach at sunset. Ah! Those were the days! Or as Omar would put it: "Alas that Spring should vanish with the rose, and youth's sweet scented manuscript should close, the nightingale that in the branches sang, ah whence and wither flown again who knows?" And so, if you yearn to know "What Omar's moving finger writ, " then tune in and we will inoculate you against excessive piety.
We are 30 podcasts into the Legacy Leaders Show, and we are super excited to share in this episode some of the best highlights from our past guests. The golden nuggets about their legacy, success, and wisdom you just don't want to miss if you are serious and willing to grind, lead and succeed. Check what Daniel Fox, Dick Gould, Zach Benson, Steven Osterhout, Robert LaSardo, Patrick Matthew Montelongo, Paul Nussbaum, David Leo-Check, DrGail McClain Hayes & Edward Fitzgerald have in store. Let us know what topics and discussions you would like to see and hear more about in the future guests. Champions, thank you for your ongoing support and participation.
Lean methodology is a core principle that focuses on minimizing waste in order to maximize value. In other words, when an organization is lean, they have created the most value possible for both the producer which can then be passed onto the consumer. In order to do this, there needs to be a shift from optimizing individual processes to optimizing entire process streams that transverse multiple products and services. This eliminates waste in a wide range of areas rather than a single isolated point. This concept is widely known in business and management, but can be limited or absent in certain healthcare settings. As a general surgery-trained consultant with KPMG and Lifebox Foundation, our guest today has been instrumental to applying this principle in research. With the advent of the internet and growing global connectivity, the ability to collaborate on a broad range of issues and reduce redundancies have expanded dramatically. Research abilities are no exception. As one of the founders of the SuRG Foundation, he has changed the face of medical research through harnessing the power of teamwork and is now helping to ensure equitable research partnerships across HIC and LMIC leaders. Join us in this exciting episode with healthcare leader Dr Ed Fitzgerald as we discuss lean methodology, disrupting healthcare research with collaboratives, funding, and the golden thread of change.
The complete audio is available for purchase here: https://bit.ly/3o5m4tn The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Translated by Edward FitzGerald Narrated by Denis Daly Omar Khayyam (1048 - 1131) was a true polymath. A distinguished mathematician, astronomer and philosopher, he is best known today for his Rubaiyat, a collection of rubai, or rhyming quatrains, of which he is estimated to have composed at least 500. Together with the work of Hafiz and Rumi, Khayyam's poetry represents the high point of classical Persian literature. Edward Fitzgerald was neither the first nor the most scholarly of the translators of the quatrains of Omar Khayyam, but due to his remarkable abilities as a poet, his versions have been accepted as classic literature in their own right. During his lifetime Fitzgerald published four editions of his translation - in 1859, 1868, 1872 and 1879 - and a fifth edition was released posthumously in 1889. In this recording are presented readings of all five editions as well as biographical material about Fitzgerald and Omar Khayyam and a laudatory poem by Andrew Lang, which were published as part of the Fourth Edition. Production copyright 2020 Voices of Today
Opportunities for second chances don't come often in life, especially after brain injury. But when you have a big dream, the right support and attitude, everything is possible.Through renewed success post severe brain injury, Edward Fitzgerald shares his recovery journey, dreaming big and more. Edward found his new calling as a published author and Executive Producer of Maximum Achievement: The Brian Tracy Story and most recently, Dreamers, a documentary featuring Lisa Nichols, Seth Godin, Dean Kamen, Peter Diamandis, Jim Kwik, Richard Branson, just to name a few. It is so powerful and uplifting - you can't miss it.Save the date, September 25th for the world wide premier!
Opportunities for second chances don't come often in life, especially after brain injury. But when you have a big dream, the right support and attitude, everything is possible. Through renewed success post severe brain injury, Edward Fitzgerald shares his recovery journey, dreaming big and more. Edward found his new calling as a published author and Executive Producer of Maximum Achievement: The Brian Tracy Story and most recently, Dreamers, a documentary featuring Lisa Nichols, Seth Godin, Dean Kamen, Peter Diamandis, Jim Kwik, Richard Branson, just to name a few. It is so powerful and uplifting - you can't miss it. Save the date, September 25th for the world wide premier!
Dr Edward Fitzgerald is a trained surgeon, current healthcare consultant and researcher in Global Surgery. In this episode, Dr Ftizgerald discusses with Ines Ongenda, the many initiatives he has been involved with or leading from Lifebox to GlobalSurg while talking about his journey into and within surgery and giving valuable, information and ideas to current trainees and students on how to make the most of the opportunities in the Global Surgery landscape.
International keynote speaker, film producer, and entrepreneur Edward Fitzgerald talks to us about how his acquired brain injury, although extremely difficult, was really a gift, but it helped him trust his instincts. It was his doctor who told him that he had plateaued, that launched him forward. We also talk about his mission to transform 3 billion lives.
Hello from Suffolk, England. Here's five minutes of civilised calm to start your day right. With a poem translated by Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. "Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring The Winter Garment of Repentance fling..." From the show: Fitzgerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Why Paradise Lost matters, and In Our Time on John Milton A Vindication of the Rights of Women The Alde Valley Spring Festival Music to wake up to – Just a Closer Walk With Thee by The Hillbilly Thomists (Listen to the full playlist on YouTube) Sign up to receive email alerts and show notes with links when a new episode goes live at marcsalmanac.substack.com Please share this with anyone who might need a touch of calm, and keep sending in your messages and requests. You can leave a voice message at https://anchor.fm/marc-sidwell/message. If you like Marc's Almanac please do leave a review on Apple podcasts. It really helps new listeners to find me. Have a lovely day. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/marc-sidwell/message
PODCAST #13: SUFI LYRICS IN THE EGYPTIAN DESERT by Martin Bidney My month-long spiritual pilgrimage at the Sekem desert farming settlement in 2011 was guided by Sufi mentors in the Religion of Love. I Poet Omar as my Sufi mentor. Medieval Sufi Omar's most famous quatrain, from his Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as translated by Victorian interpreter Edward FitzGerald, begins, “A book of Verses underneath the Bough.” This world-famed four-line love song introduced me to the SUFI RELIGION OF LOVE. I emulate the “Book of Verses” love song in these poems, where I shorten the Omar lines by one beat to sweeten the harmonies: 82. So went the caravan away 77. The courtyard – filled with leaves and blooms, 73. Our worldly life was at an end [a woman's love for God] 63. The eyes that light the sky of her [a man loves a woman and God] 90. A vast and mighty [love of the Unnamable, my epigraph and epitaph] I also love Omar's lines beginning Myself when young did eagerly frequent and ending with the words I came like water, and like wind I go. This I emulate here: 69. Like water come, like wind I go [love every moment] 29. Now labor carefully to pay [theme of carpe diem, seize/love the day] II My Medieval Mentors in Sufi Religion of Love IBN ARABI 21. The curlew painted RUMI 22. The theme of union 34. Of poet Attar, Rumi said RABI'A 31. Just pure surrender – that's enough 46. O Lord, I hope each worldly thing III Shahid Alam as My Neighbor-mentor in Sufi Religion of Love 83-85 It is the month of Ramadan [legend of lifegiving love] 86 The coachman told: the glowing rose [miracle parable of love] 71 My friend, called Witness of the World [allusion to the Eastern Romeo & Juliet]
The complete audio is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://adbl.co/2Jv2MtY The Sufism of the Rubaiyat Or the Secret of the Great Paradox By Norton F. Hazeldine Narrated by Denis Daly Little is known of Norton F. Hazeldine, whose version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was published in 1908. It is not stated whether this was an actual translation, although it appears to be an extensive reworking of the fourth or fifth edition of the translation by Edward Fitzgerald. In the translation, which is in prose, Hazeldine elaborates heavily on religious elements in Omar's succinct verse, turning it into a kind of spiritual allegory. He presents his intention in the preface: In placing this volume before the public, I only hope that I may be able to convey to my readers the higher and deeper truths of this most famous of Persian Poets, who so ably attempted to portray to his countrymen the benevolent God the subtle life within the grosser of our material forms.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
A Multilingual Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that by Edward Fitzgerald into English, of which five editions were published between 1859 and 1889. Many translations into other languages have been published since that time. A number of translators, who were not conversant with the Persian language, chose to translate one of Fitzgerald's versions rather than the original. This project features several of these translations, based on the first, fourth and fifth editions of Fitzgerald. Translations featured in this recording First Edition English translation read by AidanVox French translation by Charles Grolleau read by Frédéric Surget Italian translation by Fulvia Faruffini read by Pier German translation by Walter Fraenzel read by Sonia Spanish translation by Ismael Enrique Arciniegas read by KendalRigans Dutch translation by Christiaan Leendert van Balen Jr. read by Foon Fourth Edition English translation read by Algy Pug Spanish translation by Jose Castellot read by Epachuko Fifth Edition English translation read by Tomas Peter Italian translation by Mario Chini read by Daniele French translation by James Henry Hallard read by Christiane Jehanne Greek translation by Ernest Crawley read bu Rapunzelina Italian translation by Diego Angeli read by Daniele This recording was first published by Librivox on 10th April, 2019.
Let's immerse ourselves in the beauty of Persian poetry with The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, rendered into English verse by Edward Fitzgerald. It's all about living in the moment. And wine. So much wine. The poetry bit starts at 27:49, if you'd like to skip Fitzgerald's very 19th century intro, but why would you? Music: "Heaven Be Here," PCIII, is licensed under CC All Boring Books readings are taken from works in the public domain. If you'd like to suggest a copyright-free reading, catch us on Twitter @boringbookspod or on our Patreon at www.patreon.com/boringbookspod, where you can also support us (and earn yourself a very calming shoutout on the show).
La dernière fois, nous avons vu la Pause, ou comment rester avec soi, en silence, quelques minutes seulement. Cette semaine, nous allons nous concentrer sur le Souffle. Retours Twitter: merci à profdesecoles , MpaquetPharma, GLXyr et à fitguigui pour leurs réactions sur la Toile. LA CITATION DE LA SEMAINE, UN POEME PERSE: Entre la foi et l'incrédulité, un souffle Entre la certitude et le doute, un souffle. Sois joyeux dans ce souffle présent où tu vis, Car la vie elle-même est dans ce souffle qui passe. (d'Omar Khayyâm, restitué par Edward Fitzgerald) Explications sur citation: “Lorsque je découvrais, en 1979, la littérature persane, je suis tombée sur la merveilleuse traduction-restitution de Omar Khayyâm par Edward Fitzgerald. Je découvris ce livre durant un séjour d'été à Woodbridge, en Angleterre, dans le Suffolk, ravissante localité en bord de rivière qui sent déjà la mer, où avait vécu Fitzgerald, un orientaliste averti qu'on accusa pourtant d'avoir « réécrit » Omar Khayyâm, comme si les persans eux-mêmes n'avaient pas été les premiers à constituer un « corpus » de quatrains,robâ'iât, de Khayyâm dont on ne saura jamais lesquels sont strictement de Khayyâm et lesquels sont ajoutés, ou bien écrits à la façon de Khayyâm. La magie opéra : Fitzgerald prit pour moi une véritable présence, et du recueil que j'eus entre les mains, se détacha ce quatrain qui fut pour moi jusqu'à présent la quintessence de la sagesse, la fine fleur d'une spiritualité qui réunit les religions que j'ai connues pour les avoir bien étudiées et jusqu'à un certain point pratiquées. Je traduis ici la traduction de Fitzgerald: Entre la foi et l'incrédulité, un souffle Entre la certitude et le doute, un souffle. Sois joyeux dans ce souffle présent où tu vis, Car la vie elle-même est dans ce souffle qui passe. (...) Je cite le texte persan, puisqu'il n'est pas si facile de le trouver : Az manzel-e kofr tâ be-dîn yek-nafas ast Va-z ‘âlam-e shak tâ be yaqin yek-nafas ast În yek-nafas-e ‘aziz-râ khosh mi-dâr Gar hâsel-e ‘omr-e mâ hamîn yek-nafas ast. Ce que je traduis aussi littéralement que possible : De la demeure de l'impiété jusqu'à la religion, il n'est qu'un souffle. Du monde du doute jusqu'à la certitude, il n'est qu'un souffle. Ce souffle précieux, chéris-le, Car, tout compte fait, notre vie c'est ce souffle même. À ma première lecture de ce poème dans la traduction anglaise de Fitzgerald, j'avais imaginé que le mot persan pour « souffle » était dam : vieux mot persan qui signifie à la fois « le souffle » et « l'instant ». Mais non ! c'était nafas, mot arabe, plus répandu que le vieux mot persan dam. Et là encore, nafas, souffle, vient d'une racine trilitère à laquelle appartient aussi nafs, mot arabe pour dire l'âme. Ce qui est un coup de maître dans ce quatrain, c'est d'avoir tout réuni : le souffle, l'âme, l'espace et le temps.” MEDITATION ASSISE GUIDEE (5 min. guidée par @LotharBielke) INSPIRATIONS #LIVRE :: Où tu vas, tu es – Jon Kabat-Zinn #ARTICLES :: http://e-rse.net/meditation-pleine-conscience-bien-etre-travail-20561/ http://www.capital.fr/carriere-management/coaching/la-meditation-pleine-conscience-fait-rimer-business-avec-sagesse-1136884 #APP :: http://lci.tf1.fr/high-tech/l-application-de-la-semaine-mind-pour-prendre-10-minutes-pour-8748689.html #CITATION :: citation en Perse, en fin d'émission, par Fahime
We wrap up most of our interview with Professor Derek Abbott in Part 2B of The Somerton Man series, where we learn that when you engage a mystery, the mystery can engage you. Tonight's Quote: "Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,Before we too into the Dust descend;Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and—sans End!" Quattrain 23 from Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Show Links: We've found that some sites are not showing these links as clickable unless they are URLs, so until those outlets improve their show notes section, we are providing actual URLs next to the clickable description of each link to make things easier for our listeners! The Dark Myths Collective: The Dark Myths Collective! http://darkmyths.org SIGN THIS PETITION FOR EXHUMATION OF THE SOMERTON MAN SO HE CAN BE PROPERLY LAID TO REST! http://bit.do/somerton Show Links - Links are the same as Part 1 as similar material is covered. New Links will appear for final Part 3 on Theories. Link to purchase Gerry Feltus' book, "The Unknown Man: A Suspicious Death at Somerton Beach" http://bit.ly/1YGiX7m One of the better of MANY websites devoted to the case http://bit.ly/1UEn83I A HuffPo Article on the case by Professor Abbott who's interview will be heard in Part 2! http://huff.to/1ID8nqM Another solid article at Phys.org about the case that discusses DNA findings http://bit.ly/1KDq8qj Much of Professor Abbott's collected knowledge on the Case http://bit.ly/1pOYPVf Audio Book versions of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam http://bit.ly/1pOZ42P There are many more links to come, but we are saving some for the other parts of the series http://bit.ly/1R2hTZi Part 1 of Littlemore Special http://bit.do/bYXLj Part 2 of Littlemore Special http://bit.do/bYXLC Part 3 of Littlemore Special http://bit.do/bYXLN
Of the six questions — who, what, when, where, how and why — we only know three when it comes to the mystery of "The Somerton Man." What and where: a middle-aged man found dead on Somerton Beach, which borders the Adelaide, Australia, suburb of Glenelg. When: he was found by passersby at 6:30 a.m. on December 1, 1948. As for the remaining questions, authorities, academics, authors, Australians and curious citizens the world over have been seeking answers ever since. The mundane yet mysterious items found on his person and in an unclaimed suitcase (thought to be his) at the Adelaide railway station would yield few clues and many more questions. He had no wallet or identification, and all the tags on his clothing were meticulously removed. Investigators had virtually nothing to go on, except for one intriguing thing: a scrap of paper torn from the last page of a first edition translation of eleventh-century poetry, the Rubaiyat of Omar Kayyam, which was found rolled up in the man's watch pocket. On it were the words, "Tamám Shud," meaning "ended" or "finished" in Persian, and giving this mystery its other renowned moniker: "The Tamám Shud Case." When the book from which the page was torn surfaced some time later, there appeared to be an unbreakable coded message written on one of the last pages. Further adding to the mystery, there was the assessment by a senior pathologist that the victim most likely died from an untraceable poison. Whether "The Somerton Man" was just a napping tourist with a degenerative disease, a jilted lover out to end it all, or a Cold War spy whose mission had been terminated, we may never know. This is Part 1 of our our 3 Part in-depth series on The Somerton Man Tonight's Quote: 'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays: Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet lays. - A selected quatrain from Edward Fitzgerald’s 1st edition translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Show Links: We've found that some sites are not showing these links as clickable unless they are URLs, so until those outlets improve their show notes section, we are providing actual URLs next to the clickable description of each link to make things easier for our listeners! The Dark Myths Collective! http://darkmyths.org SIGN THIS PETITION FOR EXHUMATION OF THE SOMERTON MAN SO HE CAN BE PROPERLY LAID TO REST! http://bit.do/somerton One of the better of MANY websites devoted to the case http://bit.ly/1UEn83I A HuffPo Article on the case by Professor Abbott who's interview will be heard in Part 2! http://huff.to/1ID8nqM Another solid article at Phys.org about the case that discusses DNA findings http://bit.ly/1KDq8qj Much of Professor Abbott's collected knowledge on the Case http://bit.ly/1pOYPVf Audio Book versions of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam http://bit.ly/1pOZ42P There are many more links to come, but we are saving some for the other parts of the series http://bit.ly/1R2hTZi Credits: Episode 033 - "The Somerton Man" Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle and the astonishing League of Astonishing Researchers. Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2016. All Rights Reserved.
On Thursday January 14th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a commentary on and a reading of the Rubaiyat a Sufi poem from medieval Persia by the mystic and astronomer Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald and published in 1859. The Rubaiyat is quintessentially romantic in style and content. It is said to reflect the ancient cyrenaic hedonistic philosophy of Aristippus and extols a libertine lifestyle in preference to piety. When I was a teenager I needed to break away from Christian fundamentalism so I adopted the Rubaiyat as my alternative to the Bible. I memorized the entire poem so that I could quote seductive passages to Baptist virgins while drinking beer on the beach at sunset. Ah! Those were the days! Or as Omar would put it: "Alas that Spring should vanish with the rose, and youth's sweet scented manuscript should close, the nightingale that in the branches sang, ah whence and wither flown again who knows?" And so, if you yearn to know "What Omar's moving finger writ, " then tune in and we will inoculate you against excessive piety.
The third in our lecture series for Trinity Term 2014, given in the JCR at Mansfield College by Edward Fitzgerald, QC - renowned human rights lawyer and leading advocate in death row cases.
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In 1859 the poet Edward FitzGerald published a long poem based on the verses of the 11th-century Persian scholar Omar Khayyam. Not a single copy was sold in the first few months after the work's publication, but after it came to the notice of members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood it became enormously influential. Although only loosely based on the original, the Rubaiyat made Khayyam the best-known Eastern poet in the English-speaking world. FitzGerald's version is itself one of the most admired works of Victorian literature, praised and imitated by many later writers. With: Charles Melville Professor of Persian History at the University of Cambridge Daniel Karlin Winterstoke Professor of English Literature at the University of Bristol Kirstie Blair Professor of English Studies at the University of Stirling Producer: Thomas Morris.
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In 1859 the poet Edward FitzGerald published a long poem based on the verses of the 11th-century Persian scholar Omar Khayyam. Not a single copy was sold in the first few months after the work's publication, but after it came to the notice of members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood it became enormously influential. Although only loosely based on the original, the Rubaiyat made Khayyam the best-known Eastern poet in the English-speaking world. FitzGerald's version is itself one of the most admired works of Victorian literature, praised and imitated by many later writers. With: Charles Melville Professor of Persian History at the University of Cambridge Daniel Karlin Winterstoke Professor of English Literature at the University of Bristol Kirstie Blair Professor of English Studies at the University of Stirling Producer: Thomas Morris.
E FitzGerald read by Classic Poetry Aloud: http://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/ Giving voice to the poetry of the past. --------------------------------------------- from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam translated by by Edward FitzGerald (1809 – 1883) I Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight: And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light. II Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry, "Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry." III And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before The Tavern shouted--"Open then the Door! You know how little time we have to stay, And, once departed, may return no more." VII Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring The Winter Garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly--and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing. X With me along some Strip of Herbage strown That just divides the desert from the sown, Where name of Slave and Sultán scarce is known, And pity Sultán Mahmúd on his Throne. XI 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. XII "How sweet is mortal Sovranty!"--think some: Others--"How blest the Paradise to come!" Ah, take the Cash in hand and wave the Rest; Oh, the brave Music of a distant Drum! XIII Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo, Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow: At once the silken Tassel of my Purse Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw." XIV The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon Turns Ashes--or it prospers; and anon, Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face Lighting a little Hour or two--is gone. XV And those who husbanded the Golden Grain, And those who flung it to the Winds like Rain, Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd As, buried once, Men want dug up again. XVI Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day, How Sultán after Sultán with his Pomp Abode his Hour or two, and went his way. For hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index. Reading © Classic Poetry Aloud 2008
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