Wine of the Mystic: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam : A Spiritual Interpretation, from Edward Fitzgerald's Translation of the Rubaiyat

Rating:
Summary: Eternal spiritual truths resurface after a millenium
Review: "It takes one to know one," is here shown to apply to mystics. In this award-winning volume, Twentieth Century Indo-American sage Paramahansa Yogananda applies his irrepressible spiritual pursuit to Omar Khayyam's Twelfth Century masterpiece. Like most cultures through the ages, Kayyam's Persia was much friendlier to his mainstream career (in mathematics and astronomy) than to his spiritual revelations. The wondrous poetic beauties which sparkle through his Rubaiyat express his personal, non-canonical insights into Enlightenment (aka: the Kingdom of Heaven, Nirvana, Samadhi) are in metaphors - symbolisms whose spiritual implications register only for those "who have eyes to see" - who have themselves had a glimpse of higher spiritual realms.

The publisher of Wine of the Mystic has included an eye-opening foreword to this volume that puts these complexities into perspective, including 1) the fact that Edward FitzGerald (translator for the most famous English-language editions) only grudging acknowledged the mystical significance of the work, 2) FitzGerald's poetic techniques that faithfully capture the *spirit* of stanzas even when they are not linear translations, 3) the tradition among Sufi mystical poets of using wine as a symbol for Divine Intoxication.

Why should a poem that is merely (on the surface) a hymn to the joys of drunkenness survive for a millenium and continue to fascinate cultures around the world in languages so unlike its author's? In his introductory words, Yogananda summarizes the miracle of FitzGerald's (apparently materialist) translation by called him "divinely inspired to catch exactly in gloriously musical English words the soul of Omar's writings." To those who have received a hint of the Divine Intoxication, a deep intuitive chord may be struck by Yogananda's explanation: "Profound spiritual treatises by some mysterious divine law do not disappear from the earth even after centuries of misunderstanding, as in the case of the Rubaiyat."

As to the book itself (Wine of the Mystic)? The awards it has won, the beauty of its color illustrations, tastefully selected type faces, and rich reproduction make this volume irresistable immediately upon opening its pages. Readers are then embraced by Yogananda's sensitive and unprecedented bouquet of insights as they are welcomed to a never before dreamed of wine-tasting.

There is *no* edition to compare. This volume will reward your reading and re-reading for years. A gorgeous gift item.

CONTENTS:
Introduction of author's (Yogananda) insights.
Foreword of publisher's (Self-Realization Fellowship) history and spiritual perspectives on the Rubaiyat's.
Presentation of each Rubaiyat quatrain, along with FitzGerald's translation, Yogananda's glossary of spiritual symbolism, Spiritual Commentary, and Practical Implications for the reader's spiritual work.
Addendum reprinting all of the verses (FitzGerald translation) without interruption.

Rating:
Summary: The Universal Truth
Review: as interpreted by Yogananda. Here Yogananda does a commentary
on "the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam." Also an interpretation. Yogananda made
the fatal error of believing that there was only one religion or truth. And that he,
himself, could discern it in all religions. He did that with the Bible. He does
this here with a Sufi poem. But this is a fine book. Very beautiful. But Yogananda's
Self-Realization Fellowship was and is Hinduism straight up the middle. Not
Original Christianity and Original Yoga as he claimed. So this book is an Islamic
poem as interpreted by a Hindu. And I think that you had better realize that
before you buy this book. And it is a beautiful book. Yogananda was always a
great writer. Most of his books are real "choppy" because they are taken from talks.
But when he wrote, it was excellent. He was quite a writer. And it comes out
in this book. But if you want the "real stuff," buy Yogananda's "God Talks to

Arjuna." Thank you.

Rating:
Summary: MISTRANSLATIONS COMMENTED BY MANY STOCK PHRASES
Review: In the Fitzgerald text that HH Yogananda comments, the Persian poem is not truly TRANSLATED: that is well explained in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Yogananda dispensed with real translations to base his commentary on. That was unwise, for translators of the poem see how great the differences are between Fitzgerald's work and a translation of Omar's poem. With such an infirm basis to work on top of, the "interpretations of Omar" by Yogananda become formidable hocus-pocus - they are, rather, what he reads into Fitzgerald's book - which differs from the work of Khayyam considerably.

(1) In this process Yogananda uses mistranslations as deep symbols to interpret; hence ERRONEUS guru dealings.

(2) He repeats himself up to gruesomely by STOCK PHRASES - very boring to some.

(3) MESS: To complicate things further, there are today TWO VERSIONS that lay claims on bringing Yogananda's (non-savoury) interpretations. These independent versions often differ. It means you may not be sure you get the true wordings of Yogananda - after the essentials of Khayyam have been done away with by Fitzgerald.

CONCLUSION SO FAR: In this work there is too much inept or senile-looking handling to deal with.