"Since its first appearance, almost unnoticed, in 1859 Edward FitzGerald's brilliant paraphrase of the 'Rubaiyat' of the twelfth century Persian poet Omar Kyayyam has established itself as a masterpiece of English letters.

The quatrain known as a 'rubai' - 'rubaiyat' is the plural - was a favourite form in Persian poetry. It was intended to stand on its own; a brief, complete epigram in verse. FitzGerald, working from the manuscript in the Bodleian Library, selected 'rubaiyat' at will and wove them into a continuous poem of seventy-five quatrains. He did not pretend that this was a literal translation: about half of the seventy-five were more or less direct renderings of Omar's 'rubaiyat' and the others were combinations of several 'rubaiyat' or came from the works of other peots.

The success of FitzGerald's work brought Omar Khayyam himself in for considerable critical scrutiny. Successive scholars denied his authorship of more and more of the 'rubaiyat' once attributed to him and until recently his stock had fallen very low. But the discovery of new manuscripts within the last few years has restored Omar to his rightful place as a considerable figure in Persian poetry.

FitzGerald prepared five editions each differing from its predecessor. The first edition has been followed here; in it FitzGerald gave the title 'Kuza Nama' - 'Book of Pots' - to stanzas 59-66, and finished his book with the words 'Tamam Shud' - 'The Very End'.