Reimagining the Rubáiyát: A Fusion of Poetry, AI, and Art

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is a collection of quatrains by the 11th-century Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer Omar Khayyám, known for its meditations on time, fate, and the fleeting nature of life. Edward FitzGerald’s 19th-century translation transformed Khayyám’s verses into one of the most celebrated works of world literature, pairing poetic skepticism with lush, evocative imagery. Inspired by the long tradition of illustrated editions of the Rubáiyát, I set out to create a new interpretation, using modern AI tools to generate striking visual pairings for this timeless text.