Edward FitzGerald was a wealthy Victorian eccentric with a wonderful way with words. His interpretation of the verses of the Persian Omar Khayyam (1048-1123) – poet, mathematician, and astronomer – are one of the landmarks of English literature, with memorable images ranging from the Sultan's Turret caught in a Noose of Light to the implacable Moving Finger whose words cannot be erased. All this and wine, women, and existential philosophy.

Extracts from The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam

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.

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.'

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.

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.

The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line

Nor all thy Tears wash out a word of it.