Selections from the Rubaiyat of Khayyam (1)

About 160 years ago, the quatrains of an Iranian poet named Omar Khayyam were translated into English. After that, the whole world came to know Khayyam and recognized him as one of the greatest poets and even thinkers in the world. Khayyam is now a very popular poet because he has profound thoughts and contemplates questions that concern all humanity. When today’s person thinks about life and death, when they ponder the philosophy of being alive, they often find no answers better than those provided by Khayyam. This is why we need to familiarize ourselves with Khayyam’s poetry and get closer to his thoughts. Our goal in this course is to introduce you, wherever you are in the world and in whatever language you speak, to Khayyam and his poetry.

This course is designed for non-Persian speakers who have an intermediate level of proficiency in Persian. So, if you are learning Persian and can read simple Persian texts, this course will be very beneficial for you, even if you have never studied Persian literature before. Additionally, this course can also be useful for those whose mother tongue is Persian. In general, the audience for this course consists of those who wish to read and understand a bit of Khayyam’s poetry but cannot do so on their own.

In this course, we will talk about Khayyam’s life using the most reliable Persian sources. Secondly, we will practically introduce you to his poetry. Over four lessons, we will read a total of 16 quatrains with you, line by line. We will provide simple meanings of the words and verses and explain the concept of each quatrain. At the end of each lesson, there will be a quiz to assess your learning progress.

The course content is in Persian to familiarize the audience directly with Khayyam’s original language, but if Persian is not your first language, don’t worry; the language of this course is very simple. Moreover, you can also refer to the English meanings of the verses and the English subtitles of the videos for assistance. By the end of this course, you will become more acquainted with Persian literature, and your skills in reading and listening to the Persian language will improve. So let’s enjoy the Persian language and literature together.