Poems of the Orient

The Rubá'iyát of Omar Khayyam, in the famous translation by Edward FitzGerald, remains one of the world's most popular poems. Well received at the time, it also reveals the popularity of Victorian England's fascination with the Orient. Here, the poem forms the main work in the first part of this recording, along with shorter poems by other leading Persian and Indian figures, including Rumi, Sa'di and Rabindranath Tagore. The second half is devoted to works written by Western poets on the theme of the East with "The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan," an excerpt from Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh, one of the bestsellers of the early nineteenth century.

About the Author :
Omar Khayyam (1048-1123) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet, renowned in his own country and time for his scientific achievements but largely known to the English-speaking world as the author of Edward Fitzgerald's collection of translated quatrains, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In addition to poetry, Khayyam also made major contributions to the fields of algebra and geometry. In The History of Western Philosophy Betrand Russell remarks that he was the only man known to him who was both a poet and a mathematician. David Timson is an actor, voice actor, and playwright. He is best known for his narration of The Complete Sherlock Holmes audiobook, in which he voices all 125 characters in the Holmes novels and short stories. His narrations have earned eight AudioFile Earphones Award. Madhav Sharma made his professional acting debut with the Shakespearean International Company, touring such places as India, Singapore, Malaysia, Sarawak, North Borneo, and Hong Kong. He works extensively on stage, screen, and radio in the UK where he now resides. Philip Madoc's theater credits include performances in Othello, Faust, Duet for One, and the stage adaptation of Kingsley Amis' novel The Old Devils. His television roles include Sir George Fisun in A Very British Coup, Lancing in the BBC's First Born, and the title role in the BBC production of Lloyd George. Among his films are Operation Daybreak and A Mind to Kill. Daniel Philpott trained at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and, after success in the prestigious Carleton Hobbs Award for Radio Drama, has been prolific in BBC Radio and the Spoken Word industry. His theater work includes numerous productions on the London fringe. As an audiobook narrator, he has read George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and numerous others. Rumi (1207-1273) is the foremost Sufi poet, famous for his lyrics and for his didactic epic Masnavi, a collection of mystical tales and discourse. Rumi lived in the Seldjuk capital Konya, and his influence on literature, carried by his Sufism, spread with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire and lasted centuries. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a Bengali polymath who reshaped the art of his culture. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal. His verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed--or panned--for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's "Jana Gana Mana" and Bangladesh's "Amar Shonar Bangla." Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 and knighted by the British Crown in 1915, though he later renounced this honor after the 1919 Amritsar massacre. He died in 1941. Coming soon...

Review :
"The word 'Orient' is a nineteenth-century European term and a concept that carries the lush overtones of mystery luxury, and exotica. These extravagant readings of familiar Middle Eastern and Indian poets and Western poets writing about the region harken back to the 'mysterious East' of yesteryear. The selections are heavy in meter and rhyme...It works wonderfully well, too, in the way old movies and forgotten pop tunes do. The musical selections are especially good, and give focus and purpose and balance." -- "AudioFile"