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John Pollen (1855-1923) was an official in the Indian Civil Service. A keen linguist, he discovered Russian, Esperanto, and Persian and in 1915 released an English translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. His collection is made up of 158 quatrains and carries a set of seven prefatory quatrains by Andrew Lang and a foreword by the Aga Khan. John Pollen was an enthusiastic activist against discrimination against Indians, and his translation of the Rubaiyat was released to raise money for the welfare of Indian soldiers engaged in World War I. Inside the foreword, the Aga Khan wrote: 'The attraction of the Rubayiat, which is based on the intensely individual heart pervading them, is improved by the poet's inimitable directness of manifestation, his terse and incisive phrases and a simple sophistication of style, get back unrivalled and untranslatable music of words to which the sonorous terms of Persia peculiarly lends itself. To replicate these subtle features of the original in a translation is not an easy undertaking. FitzGerald succeeded in a impressive degree in offering the heart of Omar's quatrains in his famous translation; which in a few respects transcends the beauty of the original, but to achieve this end he previously to diverge from the notice of the Rubayiat as well as from the series of the verses. Dr. John Pollen in his more faithful translation has completed an activity of higher difficulty, and has done justice both to the notice also to the heart of the original. In its simple and attractive garb the version now wanted to the public, for the good thing about the Indi an soldiers who are now laying down their lives for the Empire on the battlefields of three continents, deserves to find a place on the bookshelves of the numerous admirers of the poet in the English-speaking world.'
