The Quatrains of Omar Khayyrim. Translated by E. H. Whinfield,
late of the Bengal Civil Service. (Trilloner.)—This volume, which forms one of Messrs. Triibner's "Oriental Series," is a literal and faith- ful version of the rebel or quatrain used by Omar Khayyam, poet astronomer, and mathematician, of a date answering to the eleventl,i century of the Christian era. The quatrain, it should be said, is a short poem, always complete in four lines, of which the first two and the fourth always rhyme, while sometimes the rhyme extends to all the four lines. In his introduction, Mr. Whinfield gives us some rules as to the composition of the quatrain, or rather of the lines composing it ; and a brief sketch of the author, now so well known through the magnificent version of Mr. Fitzgerald. The apophthegms uttered in these quatrains are strangely varied, some being gay and sparkling whilst others are distinctly pious, and might be taken from the Psalms of David. Take, for instance, the two following :— 100.—" In Paradise are Henri., as you know,
And fountains that with wine and honey Stow; If these be lawful in the world above, What harm to love the like down here below 93.—What adds my service to thy Majesty ? Or how eon sins of mine dishonour thee ? 0, pardon thou, and punish not ; I know Thon'a slow to wrath, and prone to clemency."
Many of them are quaint and humorous, and some even comic ; and a large number remind us of Martial, when he is at his best. Mr.. Whinfield seems to have done his work as a translator carefully.
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