Perhaps this is not so much a translation as a rendering in Scots. Rab Wilson's quatrains tackle the same themes as the original Ruba'iya't but with a Scottish take, not only in language but also in tone and reference. It shows that the fundamental problems of everyday existence have not really changed for any of us over the last thousand years.
I found Robert Wilson's Omar Khayyam very readable. It will stand well in print in Scotland. - EDWIN MORGAN
The Rubaiyat of Omar takes on a contemporary gloss in a rumbustious reworking in Scots of the literal text of the Persian poet. - THE HERALD
Working as a miner Robert Wilson heard a quote from The Ruba'iyat. Intrigued he read Edward Fitzgerald's version of the Ruba'iyat and there began a passion. Born in New Cumnock, Ayrshire in 1961, Rab Wilson is a Scots poet who has performed his work to varied audiences throughout Scotland. Now working as a psychiatric nurse, Edwin Morgan describes his poetry as a 'new voice' for Scotland.