by Hakim Omar Khayyám (c1048 - c1122)
Translation by Edward Fitzgerald (1809 - 1883)
They say the Lion and the Lizard keep
Language: English  after the Persian (Farsi)
They say the Lion and the Lizard keep The Courts where Jamshýd gloried and drank deep, And Bahrám, that great Hunter, -- the wild Ass Stamps o'er his Head, [but cannot break his sleep]1.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)1 in the first edition alone: "and he lies fast asleep"
Text Authorship:
- by Edward Fitzgerald (1809 - 1883), no title, appears in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, First Edition, no. 17, appears in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Second Edition, no. 19, appears in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Third Edition, no. 18, appears in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Fourth Edition, no. 18, first published 1859 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Persian (Farsi) by Hakim Omar Khayyám (c1048 - c1122) [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir (1868 - 1946), "They say the Lion and the Lizard keep", published 1906 [ soli, chorus, and orchestra ], from Omar Khayyám, Part I, no. 18, Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel [sung text not yet checked]
The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:
- by Liza Lehmann (1862 - 1918), "They say the Lion and the Lizard keep", 1896 [ SATB quartet and piano ], from In a Persian Garden, no. 18
- by Henry Houseley (1852? - 1925), "Part 3", published 1917 [ soli, chorus, orchestra ], from cantata Omar Khayyám, no. 3, New York : H. W. Gray
Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller
This text was added to the website: 2006-04-08
Line count: 4
Word count: 33