Omar Khayyam, 1044 - 1123
XI
Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough
a flask of wine, a book of verse -- and thou
beside me singing in the wilderness --
and wilderness is paradise enow.
Omar Khayyam was a significant mathematician and astronomer of the medieval era. He wrote one of the most important early discourses on algebra, Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra, which includes a geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle. He is equally well-known for his collected poetry, The Rubaiyat, as translated by the 19th century english poet and writer, Edward FitzGerald.
Quite the romantic, this man of math and science!
