Rubaiyat: 01/18/07
A rubaiyat is a quatrain or four line poem. Omar Khayyam was a poet, astronomer, algebraist and former tentmaker. Each rubaiyat reads like a haiku and though short often time requires contemplation. Put together they form a 444 line examination of the human condition in terms of love, life and death, nature and science.
The most famous translation of the Rubaiyat was done by Edward Fitzgerald in 1852. He apparently took quite a few liberties with the translation, turning vague poetry into gay poetry. Although the version I read still shows Fitzgerald as the translator, the text is very different (and I suspect cleaned up) from Project Gutenberg has online. The copy I read was a "book club" edition and I suspect the publisher didn't want to insult the sensibilities of its readers (pity).
Although the text I read was cleaned up, I did enjoy the spirit of the poems. Someday though I would like to own an older edition, one that hasn't been cleansed.
Harriet at Play:
Harriet loves the color purple. Her two favorite blankets are purple (one dark and one a light lavender). One of her favorite toys is a purple elephant. It is easy for her to hold and its ears crinkle. She likes to chew on the trunk.
When she's not enjoying the color purple, she likes to play with her "unowns" as Sean calls them. They are a group of alphabet letters in colorful and textured plastic that can be hooked together in a chain. We chain a few of the letters together, usually no more than two or three. Her "breakfast" chain spells "bog" or "gob" depending on which way around the letters are hooked. She has a "VZ" chain in her bathtub. She likes them because they are easy to hold onto and narrow enough to fit in her mouth (a good thing since she's teething).
Harriet still hates tummy time (unless she's on top of me) as did Sean at this age. She likes to roll around (something Sean was never did much) and she still likes to practice standing either while "dancing" with Ian or playing the "up/down" game with me.
Steps: 5000
