Edward FitzGerald's version of the _Ruba'iyat_ was the first
to appeal to the western world. It has been reproduced in
countless editions since it was first issued in London in
1859. Dole in the _Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam_ (Boston, 1896)
gives a fairly complete bibliography of manuscripts,
editions, translations and imitations of the Quatrains.
Five hundred quatrains from the original Persian, translated
metrically by E. H. Whinfield, were issued in London, 1883,
while Payne made a poetical translation, reproducing all the
metrical eccentricities of the original Persian, which he
called "_The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam_, now first completely
done into English Verse from the Persian, with a Biographical
and Critical Introduction" (London, 1898). Heron Allen has
added a valuable book in _The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam_: A
Facsimile of the Manuscript in the Bodleian Library,
Translated and Edited (Boston, 1898).
One of the best editions of the _Ruba'iyat_ is a reprint of
FitzGerald's various editions, showing the many changes, some
of which were not improvements, and the quatrains that were
dropped out of the final version, with a commentary by Batson
and an introduction by Ross (New York, 1900).
Another excellent edition of FitzGerald's final version,
issued by Paul Elder & Company, is edited by Arthur Guiterman
and contains _The Literal Omar_, that lovers of the
astronomer-poet may see, stanza for stanza, how the old
Persian originally phrased the verses that the Irish recluse
so musically echoed in English.