Omar Khayyam Translated By PEI TE HURINUI JONES Illustrated by HARRY DANSEY The poems printed here are just a few samples of a complete translation of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat into Maori done by Mr Pei Jones. As a new departure in the use of the Maori language, this translation is of considerable interest. It may be hoped a publisher will be found for the entire collection. Omar Khayyam was a great Persian mathematician, astronomer and poet of the eleventh and twelfth century A.D. His poems, called Rubaiyat, consist of four lines, of which the first, second and fourth rhyme and the third (but not always) remains rhymless. Mr Jones has used the famous English translation by Edward Fitzgerald (5th Version). 12. Here with a little Bread beneath the Bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse—and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness— Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow! Ko reira ahau me te Taro iti noa nei i raro i te Peka Rakau, He oko Waina, he Pukapuka Waiata—me koe tahi, e te tau, E waiata ana i taku taha i te Raorao— Ka meinga hoki ra te Raorao hei Mâra inaianei!