Introduction

The ruba'i is a Persian quatrain in which the first, second and fourth lines rhyme. Khayyam's quatrains are brief, lucid and profound, and they put the most fundamental questions of life: where do we come from, and where are we going? What is fate? Is there a life to come? His answers are full of doubt and melancholy, and full too of love for the present moment: life is short, the past cannot be recovered and the future cannot be known, so let us take today, in the shade of a tree, a book of verse, a jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and the beloved singing beside us. The number of quatrains truly his has long been disputed; we translate from the Persian the selection that scholars regard as most reliable.