Almost a thousand years ago there lived in Persia a great and wise man who was a brilliant mathematician, an astronomer to the Royal Court, and a poet of unparalleled vision and wisdom. His name was Omar Khayyam. In the western world he is known as the author of The Ruba'iyat.

An influential, inspiring poetry collection of striking profundity, The Ruba'iyat asks questions of ourselves that are still relevant today. Transformed into Lowland Scots, Rab Wilson's version of The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam leaves behind the souks, bazaars and taverns of medieval Persia and transports us to the bustling urban scenes of modern, inner-city Scotland. Join the flotsam and jetsam of a teeming underclass as they tell us of their regrets, their joys and their hopes, and realise - even after centuries passed - that essentially nothing has really changed for any of us over the centuries.

This version of The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam: In Scots is based on the Penguin Classics literal translation by Peter Avery and John Heath-Stubbs. The verses are set out in exactly the same order as the Penguin edition, so that readers may easily access, contrast and compare the new ‘owersettin’ of the work. The first 143 of the stanzas in the Penguin book are those published by the Persian writer Sadiq Hedayat in his excellent edition of 1934.

Hedayat chose to set out his version of the ruba’iyat in themed groups. To that end I have divided the tracks on the CD to correspond with his grouping of the first 143 stanzas, and given them the titles that he gave to them.

Of the remaining stanzas in the work (No’s 144 - 235) I have split them small sections of ten stanzas or so each, so that the reader/listener may delve into the work to easily find a particular quatrain or section.

NEW! - listen to selected stanzas from The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam in Scots online. Stanzas 1 to 15 - The Mystery of Creation and Stanzas 16 to 25 - Life's Agony.