The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. --From the Rubaiyat The best-selling poem of all time, Omar Khayaam’s Rubaiyat (“Quatrains”), was first published in the West in 1859 by translator Edward FitzGerald. Excerpts from his well-loved version appear here, accompanied by Bird Parliament, a delightful work by Khayyam’s contemporary, the influential mystic poet Farrid Ud-Din Attar.