 |
[134] Published in Lyrische Blaetter.
[135] In Vermischte Schriften.
[136] Platens Werke (Cotta), vol. ii. See p. 7, note, where information is given as to place and date of these poems.
[137] Dedication of Spiegel des Hafis to Otto von Buelow, vol. i. p. 265.
[138] We cite the Ghaselen by the number in vol. ii. of the edition here used.
[139] Goethe protested against this Oriental feature. See Noten u. Abh. to his Divan, vol. iv. p. 273 seq.
[140] Heines Saemtliche Werke, ed. Born (Cotta), vol. vi. pp. 130 seq. Goethe in his comments on his Saki Nameh (op. cit. p. 307) emphasizes the purely pedagogical side of this relation of saqi and master.
[141] Kasside, dated February 3, 1823, ii. p. 60.
[142] Lith. ed., Shiraz, A.H. 1312.
[143] The Divan appeared August, 1819. Platen's poem is dated Oct. 28, 1819.
[144] See Studien zu Platen's Balladen, Herm. Stockhausen, Berl. (1898), pp. 50, 51, 53, 54.
CHAPTER VIII.
RUeCKERT.
His Oriental Studies—Introduces the Ghasele—Oestliche Rosen; Imitations of Hafid—Erbauliches und Beschauliches—Morgenlaendische Sagen und Geschichten—Brahmanische Erzaehlungen—Die Weisheit des Brahmanen—Other Oriental Poems.
When speaking of the introduction of the gazal-form into German literature mention was made of the name of the man who is unquestionably the central figure in the great Oriental movement which is occupying our attention. Combining the genius of the poet with the learning of the scholar, Rueckert was preeminently fitted to be the literary mediator between the East and the West. And his East was not restricted, as Goethe's or Platen's, to Arabia and Persia, but included India and even China. He is not only a devotee to the mystic poetry of Rumi and the joyous strain of Hafid, but he is above all the German Brahman, who by masterly translations and imitations made the treasures of Sanskrit poetry a part of the literary wealth of his own country. To his productivity as poet and translator the long list of his works bears conclusive testimony. In this investigation, however, we shall confine ourselves to those of his original poems which are Oriental in origin or subject-matter. A discussion of the numerous translations cannot be undertaken in the limited space at our disposal.
Like Goethe and Platen, Rueckert also owed to Hammer the impulse to Oriental study. His meeting with the famous Orientalist at Vienna, in 1818,[145] decided his future career. He at once took up the study of Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit, and with such success that in a few years he became one of the foremost Orientalists in Europe.
The first fruit of these studies were the Gaselen which appeared in the Taschenbuch fuer Damen, 1821, the first poems of this form in German literature.[146] They have been generally regarded as translations from the divan of Rumi, but this is true of only a limited number; and even these were probably not taken directly from the Persian, but from the versions given by Hammer in his Redekuenste.[147] As a matter of fact, only twenty-eight—less than one-half of the Gaselen,—can be identified with originals in Hammer's book, and a comparison of these with their models shows with what freedom the latter were handled.[148] Furthermore in the opening poem, (a version of Red. p. 187, "So lang die Sonne") the last couplet:
Dschelaleddin nennt sich das Licht im Ost, Dess Wiederschein euch zeiget mein Gedicht,
is original with Rueckert, and clearly shows that he himself did not pretend to offer real translations. The majority of poems are simply original gazals in Rumi's manner.
Dschelaleddin, im Osten warst du der Salbenhaendler, Ich habe nun die Bude im Westen aufgeschlagen.[149]
These lines, we believe, define very well the attitude which the poet of the West assumed toward his mystic brother in the East.
* * * * *
The series of Ghaselen signed Freimund and dated 1822 (third series in our edition) are not characteristically Persian. Hence we proceed at once to a consideration of the fourth series (p. 253 seq.), which we shall discuss together with the poems collected under the title of Oestliche Rosen (p. 289 seq.) from which they differ in nothing but the form. They were, besides, a part of the Oestliche Rosen as published originally at Leipzig, 1822.
These poems are free reproductions or variations of Hafizian themes and motives. The spirit of revelry and intoxication finds here a much wilder and more bacchanalian expression than in the Divan of Goethe or the Ghaselen of Platen. Carpe diem is the sum and substance of the philosophy of such poems as "Einladung" (p. 287) and "Lebensgnuege" (p. 293); their note is in thorough accord with Hafid, when he exclaims (H. 525. 7):
[Arabic] [Arabic]
"to me, who worship the beloved, do not mention anything else; for except for her and my cup of wine, I care for none." We are admonished to leave alone idle talk on how and why ("Im Fruehlingsthau," p. 261), for as Hafid says (H. 487. 11): "Our existence is an enigma, whereof the investigation is fraud and fable." The tavern is celebrated with as much enthusiasm (e.g. "Das Weinhaus," p. 290) as the [Arabic] to which Hafid was destined by God (H. 492. 1). Monks and preachers are scored mercilessly (e.g. "Der Bussprediger," p. 255; "Dem Prediger," p. 295) as in H. 430. 7:
[Arabic] [Arabic]
"The admonisher spoke tauntingly: Wine is forbidden, do not drink! I said: On my eye (be it); I do not lend my ear to every ass."
The characteristic Persian images and rhetorical figures, familiar to us from Platen, are also found here in still greater variety and number. Thus to mention some new ones, the soul is likened to a bird (p. 270, No. 29, cf. H. 427. 5: [Arabic]); the cypress is invoked to come to the brook (p. 336, cf. H. 108. 3: [Arabic] "the place of the straight cypress is on the bank of the brook"); the rose-bush glows with the fire of Moses ("Gnosis," p. 350, cf. H. 517. 2: [Arabic] [Arabic] "the rose displays the fire of Musa"); Hafis is an idol-worshipper (p. 305, "Liebesandacht," cf. H. 439. 6, where [Arabic] "the idol of sweet motions" is addressed). We meet also the striking Oriental conception of the dust of the dead being converted into cups and pitchers. In "Von irdischer Herrlichkeit" (p. 257) the character "der alte Wirth" is the pir of H. 4. 10 et passim, and when speaking of the fate of Jamsid, Sulaiman and Ka'us Kai, he says:
Von des Glueckrads hoechstem Gipfel warf der Tod in Staub sie, Und ein Toepfer nahm den Staub in Dienst des Toepferrades. Diesen Becher formt' er draus, und glueht' ihn aus im Feuer. Nimm! aus edlen Schaedeln trink und deiner Lust nicht schad' es!
This very striking thought, as is well known, is extremely common in Persian poetry. To cite from Hafid (H. 459. 4):
[Arabic] [Arabic]
"The day when the wheel (of fate) from our dust will make jugs, take care! make our skull (lit. the cup of the head) full of wine."[150]
Some of the poems are versions, more or less free, of Hafid—passages, e.g. "Die verloren gegangene Schoene" (p. 290, H. 268), "An die Schoene" (p. 308, H. 160, couplets 2 and 5 being omitted), "Beschwichtigter Zweifel" (p. 310, H. 430. 6), "Das harte Wort" (p. 350, H. 77. 1 and 2). Sometimes a theme is taken from Hafid and then expanded, as in "Die Busse" (p. 346), where the first verse is a version of H. 384. 1, the rest being original.
Of course, reminiscences of Hafid are bound to be frequent. We shall point out only a few instances. "Nicht solltest du so, O Rose, versaeumen die Nachtigall" ("Stimme der Sehnsucht," p. 256) is inspired by a verse like H. 292. 2:
[Arabic] [Arabic]
"O rose, in thanks for that thou art the queen of beauty, display no arrogance towards nightingales madly in love."
In "Zum neuen Jahr" (p. 260) the last lines:
Trag der Schoenheit Koran im offenen Angesicht, Und ihm diene das Lied Hafises zum Kommentar
are a parallel to H. 10. 6:
[Arabic] [Arabic]
"Thy beautiful face by its grace explained to us a verse of the Quran; for that reason there is nothing in our commentary but grace and beauty."
The opening lines of "Schmuck der Welt" (p. 260):
Nicht bedarf der Schmink' ein schoenes Angesicht. So bedarf die Liebste meiner Liebe nicht
are distinctly reminiscent of H. 8. 4:
[Arabic] [Arabic]
"Of our imperfect love the beauty of the beloved is independent. What need has a lovely face of lustre and dye and mole and line?"
Like Hafid (H. 358. 11; 518. 7 et passim) Rueckert also boasts of his supremacy as a singer of love and wine ("Vom Lichte des Weines," p. 273). Finally in "Frag und Antwort" (p. 258) he employs the form of the dialogue, the lines beginning alternately Ich sprach, Sie sprach, just as Hafid does in Ode 136 or 194. The "Vierzeilen" (p. 361), while they have the ruba'i-rhyme, are not versions. Only a few of them have an Oriental character. Completely unoriental are the "Briefe des Brahmanen" (p. 359), dealing with literary matters of contemporary interest.[151]
The Oriental studies which Rueckert continued to pursue with unabated ardor were to him a fruitful source of poetic inspiration. They furnished the material for the great mass of narrative, descriptive and didactic poems which were collected under the titles Erbauliches und Beschauliches aus dem Morgenlande, and again Morgenlaendische Sagen und Geschichten, furthermore Brahmanische Erzaehlungen, and lastly Weisheit des Brahmanen. We shall discuss these collections in the order here given.
* * * * *
The first collection Erbauliches und Beschauliches (vol. vi.) consists of poems which were published between the years 1822 and 1837 in different periodicals. They appeared in collected form as a separate work in 1837.[152] The material is drawn from Arabic and Persian sources, only one poem, "Die Schlange im Korbe," p. 80, being from the Sanskrit of Bhartrhari (Nitis. 85).[153]
With the Arabic sources, the Quran, the chrestomathies of de Sacy and Kosegarten, and others, we are not here concerned. Among the Persian sources the one most frequently used is the Gulistan, from which are taken, to give but a few instances, "Sadi an den Fuerstendiener," p. 57 (Gul. i. distich 3), "Mitgefuehl," p. 52 (Gul. i. 10, Mathnavi), "Kein Mensch zu Haus," p. 52 (Gul. vii. 19, dist. 6, Platts, p. 139), "Gewahrter Anstand," p. 55 (Gul. iv. Math. 5, Platts, p. 96), as well as many of the proverbs and maxims, pp. 102-108. The poem "Die Kerze und die Flasche," p. 82, is a result of the poet's studies in connection with his translation of the Haft Qulzum, a fragment of Amir Sahi[154] being combined with a passage cited from Asadi.[155] "Eine Kriegsregel aus Mirchond," p. 73, is a paraphrase of a mathnavi from Mirchvand's Raudat-ussafa.[156] In "Gottesdienst," p. 52, the first two lines are from Amir Xusrau (Red. p. 229); the remaining lines were added by Rueckert. The fables given on pp. 87-96 as from Jami are taken from the eighth chapter or "garden" of that poet's Baharistan; they keep rather closely to the originals, only in "Die Rettung des Fuchses" the excessive naturalism of the Persian is toned down.[157] One of these fables, however, "Falke und Nachtigall," p. 89, is not from Jami, but from the Machsan-ul-asrar of Nidami ([Arabic] ed. Nathan. Bland, London, 1844, p. 114; translated by Hammer in Red. p. 107).
Some of the poems in this collection are actual translations from Persian literature. Thus "Ein Spruch des Hafis," p. 59, is a fine rendering of qit'ah 583 in the form of the original.[158] Then a part of the introduction to Nidami's Iskandar Namah is given on p. 65. The translation begins at the fortieth couplet:[159]
[Arabic]
"Who has such boldness that from fear of Thee he open his mouth save in submission to Thee?"
This is well rendered:
Wer hat die Kraft, in deiner Furcht Erbebung, Vor dir zu denken andres als Ergebung?
As will be noticed, Rueckert here has not attempted to reproduce the mutaqarib, as Platen has done in his version of the first eight couplets (see p. 36).
Some of the translations in this collection were not made directly from the Persian, but from the versions of Hammer. Thus "Naturbetrachtung eines persischen Dichters," p. 62, is a free rendering of Hammer's version of the invocation prefixed to Attar's Mantiq-ut tair (Red. p. 141 seq.) and Rueckert breaks off at the same point as Hammer.[160] So also the extract from the Iyar-i-Danis of Abu'l Fadl (p. 68) is a paraphrase of the version in Red. p. 397.
A number of poems deal with legends concerning Rumi, or with sayings attributed to him. Thus the legend which tells how the poet, when a boy, was transported to heaven in a vision, as told by Aflaki in the Manaqibu'l 'Arifin,[161] forms the subject of a poem, p. 37. A saying of Rumi concerning music prompted the composition of the poem, p. 54 (on which see Boxberger, op. cit. p. 241), and on p. 62 the great mystic is made to give a short statement of his peculiar Sufistic doctrine of metempsychosis.[162] In "Alexanders Vermaechtnis," p. 61, we have the well-known legend of how the dying hero gives orders to leave one of his hands hanging out of the coffin to show the world that of all his possessions nothing accompanies him to the grave. In Nidami's version, however, the hand is not left empty, but is filled with earth.[163]
Finally there are a few poems dealing with Oriental history, of which we may mention "Hormusan," p. 25, the subject being the same as in Platen's more famous ballad. It may be that both poets drew from the same source (see p. 37).
* * * * *
In the same year (1837) as the Erbauliches und Beschauliches there appeared the Morgenlaendische Sagen und Geschichten (vol. iv.) in seven books or divisions. In general, the contents of these divisions may be described as versified extracts from Oriental history of prevailingly legendary or anecdotal character. Their arrangement is mainly chronological. Only the fourth, fifth and seventh books call for discussion as having Persian material. The most important source is the great historical work Raudat us-safa of Mirch, portions of which had been edited and translated before 1837 by scholars like de Sacy,[164] Wilken,[165] Vullers[166] and others.[167]
Other sources to be mentioned are d'Herbelot's Bibliotheque Orientale,[168] de Sacy's version of the Tarich-i-Yamini[169] and Hammer's Geschichte der schoenen Redekuenste Persiens.
* * * * *
The first poem of the fourth book goes back to the legendary period of Iran. Its hero is Gustasp, the patron and protector of Zoroaster. Rueckert calls him Kischtasp. He does not give the story directly according to Firdausi (tr. Mohl, iv. 224, 278-281) but makes his hero go to Turan, whence he returns at the head of a hostile army. At the boundary he is met, not by his brother Zarir, but simply by messengers who offer him Iran's crown. This he accepts and thus becomes king and protector of the realm he was about to assail.[170]
Most of the other poems in this book deal with legends of the Sassanian dynasty. Thus "Schapurs Ball," p. 114 (Mem. pp. 282-285); "Die Woelfe und Schakale Nuschirwans," p. 115 (Mem. p. 381); "Die abgestellte Hungersnoth," p. 116 (Mem. pp. 345, 346); "Die Heerschau," p. 117 (Mem. p. 373). The two stories about Bahram Cubin, pp. 119-122, are also in Mem. p. 395 and pp. 396, 397 respectively.[171] "Der Mann mit einem Arme," p. 124, is in Mem. pp. 348, 349. In the last poem "Yesdegerd," p. 126, Rueckert gives the story of the sad end of the last Sassanian apparently according to different accounts, and not simply according to Firdausi or Mirchvand.
The sixth book opens with the story of Muntasir, p. 198, (from d'Herb. vol. iii. pp. 694, 695) and then we enter the period of the Saffarid dynasty. Its founder Ya'qub is the subject of a poem, p. 207 (d'Herb. iv. 459). "Zu streng und zu milde" and "Schutz und Undank," both p. 210, tell of the fortunes of Prince Qabus (Wilken, Sam. p. 181 and pp. 79-81, 91, 198-200, n. 47). "Die aufgehobene Belagerung," p. 211, brings us to the Buyids (d'Herb. ii. pp. 639, 640). The story of Saidah and Mahmud, p. 212, is from Wilken's Buj. c. xii. pp. 87-90, but the order of the events is changed. Then we come to the history of the Ghaznavid dynasty, in connection with which the story of Alp Tagin is told in "Lokman's Wort," p. 214, according to the account of Haidar in Wilk. Gasnevid. p. 139, n. 1, preceded by an anecdote told of Luqman (d'Herb. ii. 488). "Die Schafschur," p. 215, gives a saying of Sabuktagin from the Tarich-i-Yamini (on the authority of 'Utbi, de Sacy, Notices et Extr. iv. 365). In the story of Mahmud's famous expedition to Somanatha, p. 215, Rueckert has combined the meagre account of Mirchvand with that of Firista for the story of the Brahman's offer and with that of Haidar for the sultan's reply (Wilk. Gasnevid. pp. 216, 217, n. 109). "Mahmud's Winterfeldzug," p. 216, is also from Wilken's book (pp. 166-168, n. 38); in fact Dilchak's reply is a rhymed translation of the passage in the note referred to. From the same source came also the poem on the two Dabsalims, p. 219 (Wilken, Gasnevid. pp. 220-225). The familiar anecdote of the vizier interpreting to Mahmud the conversation of the two owls is told in Nidami's Machsan-ul-asrar (ed. Bland, pp. 48-50), where, however, Anusirvan is the sultan. The title reads: [Arabic].[172] "Abu Rihan" (i.e. Albiruni) is taken from d'Herb. I. 45 and iv. 697.
Then follow stories from the period of the Saljuks: "Des Sultan's Schlaf," p. 224 (Vullers, Gesch. der Seldsch. pp. 43, 44); "Nitham Elmulks Ehre," p. 228 (ibid. pp. 228-230); "Nitham Elmulks Fall," p. 229 (ib. pp. 123-125 and pp. 128-132); "Die unglueckliche Stunde," p. 232 (ibid. pp. 153, 154). "Die unterthaenigen Wuerfel," p. 227, is from the Haft Qulzum (Gram. u. Poet. der Perser, pp. 366, 367). The stories of Alp Arslan and Romanus, p. 225, and of Malaksah's prayer, p. 228, are not given by Mirchvand, but occur in the works of Deguignes, Gibbon, Malcolm and d'Herbelot.[173] The story of the death of Sultan Muhammad (in 1159 A.D.), p. 232, is in Deguignes, ii. 260, 261.
Then we get stories from the period of the Mongol invasion. "Die prophezeite Weltzerstoerung," p. 237, the legend of Jingis Chan's birth, is in the Tarich-i-Yamini (Notices et Extr. iv. pp. 408, 409). The material for the poems concerning Muhammad Xvarazm Sah, p. 237, and his brave son Jalal ud-din, pp. 240, 241, is found in the work of Deguignes (op. cit. ii. p. 274 and pp. 280-283). Finally we are carried even to India and listen to the story of the unhappy queen Raziyah, p. 255, who was murdered at Delhi by her own generals in 1239 A.D.[174]
A few anecdotes about Persian poets are also given. Thus "Dichterkampf," p 233, gives the amusing story of the literary contest between Anvari and Rasid, surnamed Vatvat "the swallow" (Hammer, Red. p. 121; David Price, Chronological Retrospect, London, 1821, ii. 391, 392), and on p. 243 we are told how Kamal ud-din curses his native city Ispahan and how the curse was fulfilled. (Hammer, Red. p. 159.)
The seventh book contains two of Rueckert's best known parables, the famous "Es ging ein Mann im Syrerland," p. 303,[175] and "Der Sultan laesst den Mewlana rufen," p. 305 (Red. p. 338).
* * * * *
It will be noticed that the Oriental poems which we have thus far discussed were mainly derived from Arabic and Persian sources. We may now turn our attention to a collection in which Rueckert's studies on matters connected with India are also represented.
This collection Brahmanische Erzaehlungen, published in the year 1839 (vol. iii.), does not, however, as its title might lead us to suppose, consist exclusively of Indic material. Some of the poems are not even Oriental; "Annikas Freier," p. 217, for example, is from the Finnic. Of others, again, the subject-matter, whether originally Oriental or not, has long ago become the common property of the world's fable-literature, as, for instance, "Weisheit aus Vogelmund," p. 239, the story of which may be found in the Gesta Romanorum, and in French, English and German, as well as in Persian, fable-books.[176] Some are from Arabic sources, as from the Thousand and One Nights, e.g. "Der schwanke Ankergrund," p. 357,[177] "Elephant, Nashorn und Greif," p. 367,[178] "Die Kokosnuesse," p. 359.[179] The poem "Rechtsanschauung in Afrika," p. 221, is a Hebrew parable from the Talmud and had been already used by Herder.[180]
A considerable number of the poems contain nothing but Persian material. Thus "Wettkampf," p. 197, is from the Gulistan (i. 28; K.S. tr. p. 27); and from the same source we have "Rache fuer den Steinwurf," p. 219 (Gul. i. 22; K.S. 21), "Fluch und Segen," p. 234 (Gul. i. 1), and "Busurgimihr," p. 225 (Gul. i. 32; K.S. 31). "Die Bibliothek des Koenigs," p. 405, is from the Baharistan (K.S., p. 31; Red. p. 338). Three episodes from the Iskandar Namah are narrated on pp. 214-217: the story of the invention of the mirror (Isk. tr. Clark, xxiii. p. 247), the battle between the two cocks (ibid., xxii. p. 234 seq.), and the message of Dara to Alexander with the latter's reply (ibid. xxiv. p. 263).[181]
On p. 329 Rueckert offers a free, but faithful, even if abridged version of selected passages from the introductory chapters of Nidami's work (Isk. tr. Clarke, canto ii, p. 18 seq. and canto vii, p. 53 seq.). In "Kiess der Reue," p. 421, he paraphrases the episode of Alexander's search for the fountain of life from the Shah Namah (tr. Mohl, v. pp. 177, 178). The story of Bahramgur in the same work (tr. Mohl, v, pp. 488-492) appears in "Allwo nicht Zugethan," p. 397. It is not taken from Firdausi, for it relates the story somewhat differently, and introduces a love-episode of which the epic knows nothing.[182] Again, "Der in die Stadt verschlagene Kurde," p. 229, is an anecdote which Rueckert had already translated in the Haft Qulzum (see his Poet. u. Rhet. der Perser, pp. 72-74), while "Gluecksgueter," p. 233, may have been suggested by a story of Attar which he published afterwards (1860, ZDMG. vol. 14, p. 286). Some anecdotes of Persian princes or poets are also utilized, e.g. "Das Kuechenfeldgeraethe des Fuersten Amer," p. 226 (d'Herb. iv. 459; Malcolm i. p. 155), "Der Spiegel des Koenigs," p. 223 (Deguignes, ii. 171), and the story of Jami and the mulla, p. 224 (M. Kuka, The Wit and Humour of the Persians, Bombay, 1894, pp. 165, 166). In one poem, "Ormuzd und Ahriman," p. 344, an Avestan subject is treated, the later Parsi doctrine of zrvan akarana.[183]
* * * * *
The great majority of the poems in this collection are concerned with India, its literature, mythology, religious customs, geography and history, and it will be convenient for our purpose to discuss them under these heads.
In the first group, that which takes its material from Sanskrit literature, we meet with the story of the flood, p. 298, from the Mahabharata (Vana Parva, 187) and the story of Rama's exploits and Sita's love, p. 268, from the Ramayana. Also a number of fables from the Hitopadesa or Pancatantra occur, e.g. that of the greedy jackal, p. 249, familiar from Lafontaine (Hit. i. 6; Panc. ii. 3), and that of the lion, the mouse and the cat, p. 250 (Hit. ii. 3). The story of the ungrateful man and the grateful animals, p. 252, is found in the Kathasaritsagara (tr. Tawney, ii. pp. 103-108; cf. Pali version in Rasavahini, Wollheim, Die National-Lit. saemtlicher Voelker des Orients, Berl. 1873, vol. i. p. 370). "Katerstolz und Fuchses Rath," p. 243, has for its prototype the fable of the mouse changed into a girl in Pancatantra (iv. 9; cf. the story of the ambitious Candala maid in Kathas. tr. Tawney, ii. p. 56). King Raghu's generosity to Varatantu's pupil Kautsa, as narrated in the Raghuvamsa (ch. v.), is the subject of a poem on p. 402. Two famous pieces from the Upanisad-literature are also offered: the story of how Jajnavalkya overcame nine contestants in debate at King Janaka's court and won the prize consisting of one thousand cows with gold-tipped horns, p. 247, from the Brhadaranyaka Up. iii. (see Deussen, Sechzig Upan. uebers. Leipz. 1897, p. 428 seq.), and the story of Naciketas' choice, p. 403, from the Kathaka Upanisad. To this group belong also versions of Bhartrhari, p. 337 (Nitis. 15) and p. 338 (Nitis. 67).
* * * * *
In the mythological group we have two poems telling of the history of Krsna, as given in the great Bhagavata Purana. The first one, "Die Weltliebessonne im Palast des Gottes Krischna," p. 246, gives the legend of the god's interview with the Sage Narada (Bhagav. Nirnaya Sag. Press, Bombay 1898, Lib. x. c. 69; tr. Dutt, Calcutta, 1895, pp. 298-302) with a close somewhat different from that of the Sanskrit original. The second one narrates the romance of the poor Brahman Sudaman, who pays a visit to the god and is enriched by the latter's generosity (Bhagav. x. c. 80, 81; tr. Dutt, pp. 346-355. For the Hindostanee version in the Premsagar, see Wollheim, op. cit. i. p. 421). In the Sanskrit the story is not so ideal as in Rueckert's poem. The poor Brahman is urged on to the visit, not by affection for the playmate of his youth, but rather by the prosaic appeals of his wife; yet, though the motive be different, the result is the same. Besides these, we find the legend of Kama, the Hindu Cupid, burned to ashes by Siva's third eye for attempting to interrupt the god's penance, p. 266 (Ramay. i. c. 23, Kumaras. iii. v. 70 seq.), and Rueckert manages to introduce and to explain all the epithets, Kamadeva, kandarpa, smara, manmatha, hrcchaya, ananga, which Sanskrit authors bestow upon their Cupid. We also have legends of the cause of the eclipses of sun and moon, p. 365, of the origin of caste, p. 347 (Manu i. 87), of the fabulous mountain Meru in Jambudvipa, p. 285, of the quarrelsome mountains Innekonda and Bugglekonda, p. 321 (Ritter Erdkunde, iv. 2, pp. 472, 473). The winding course of the Indus is explained by a typical Hindu saint-story, p. 335, similar to that told of the Yamuna and Rama in the Visnu Purana (tr. Wilson, ed. Dutt, Calc. 1894, p. 386).
* * * * *
Many of the poems describe religious customs practised in India. Of such customs the practice of asceticism in its different forms is one of the most striking and could not fail to engage the poet's attention. Thus the peculiar fast known as Candrayana, "moon-penance," is the subject of a poem, p. 278; so also "Titanische Bussandacht," p. 283, has for its theme the belief of the Hindus in the supernatural power conferred by excessive penance, as exemplified by the legend of Sakuntala's birth. The practice of pancatapas, "the five fires" (Manu, vi. 23. See Monier Williams, Indian Wisdom, Lond. 1876, p. 105) is the subject of the poem "Des Buessers Laeuterungswahn," p. 285. The selfish greed of the Brahmans (cf. Manu, vii. 133, 144; xi. 40) is referred to in two poems on p. 287. The supposed powers of cintamani, the Hindu wishing-stone, suggested the poem on p. 275 (cf. Bhartrhari, Vair. 33). Of other poems of this sort we may mention "Die Gottverehrung des Stammes Karian," p. 322 (Ritter, Erdk. iv. 1. p. 187), "Vom Genuss der Fruechte nach Dschainas Lehre," p. 307 (ibid. iv. p. 749), and "Die Schuhe im Tempel Madhuras," p. 301 (ibid. iv. 2. p. 4).
* * * * *
Again, many poems belong to the realm of physical and descriptive geography. Their source, in most cases, was undoubtedly the great geographical work of Ritter. To it may be referred the majority of the purely descriptive poems, e.g., "Das ewige Fruehlingsland der Tudas," p. 301 (op. cit. iv. 1. 951), "Das Fruehlingsland Kaschmir," p. 315 (ibid. ii. 1142 and 630), "Die Kokospalme," p. 304 (ibid. iv. 1. 834 seq., 838, 851, 852). The sun and moon lotuses, so famous through Heine's beautiful songs (see p. 58), are described on p. 343. Animal-life also comes in for its share, e.g. the ichneumon in "Instinctive Heilkunde der Tiere," p. 336.
* * * * *
Lastly, we come to the historical group, poems relating to the history of India. The poem on the burning of Keteus' wife, p. 382, is evidently inspired by the reading of Diodorus Siculus (xix. 33). On page 311 we have a poem celebrating the valor of the Raja Pratap Singh, who held out so bravely against Akbar in the mountain fastnesses of Citor, 1567.[184] The heroic queen-regent of Ahmadnagar, Chand Bibi, and the romantic story of her struggle against Akbar, in 1596, is the subject of the poem on p. 353. Only the bright side is, however, presented; the tragic fate which overtook the unfortunate princess three years later is not referred to.[185] The famous battle of Samugarh, 1658, by which Aurangzib gained the Mogul Empire, is narrated on p. 310, according to the account of Bernier.[186] In this connection we may also mention "Das Mikroskop," p. 370, the familiar anecdote of the Brahman who refused to drink water, after the microscope had revealed to him the existence therein of countless animalcules (Ritter, Erdk. iv. 1. p. 749).
* * * * *
Besides the poems falling under the groups discussed above there are many of purely didactic or moralizing tendency, embodying general reflections. It would take us too far, were we to attempt to discuss them, even if their interest were sufficiently great to repay the trouble. We must, however, point out that even the Sanskrit vocabulary is impressed into service to furnish material for such poems. Thus the fact that the word pada may mean either "foot," "step," or "ray of the moon or sun," is utilized for the last lines of "Vom Monde," p. 368. The meaning of the term bakravratin, "acting like a crane," applied to a hypocrite, is used for a poem on p. 363. Similarly the threefold signification of dvipa as "brahman," "bird," and "tooth" suggests "Zweigeboren," p. 423, and more instances might be adduced. It is not to be wondered at that such poetizing should often degenerate into the most inane trifling, so that we get such rhyming efforts as that on p. 326 with its pun on the similarity of hima "winter" with hema "gold," Himalaya and himavat with Himmel and Heimat, or that on p. 385 with its childish juxtaposition of the Vedantic term maya, the Greek name Maia, and the German word Magie.
* * * * *
If the poems discussed in the preceding pages were found to be largely didactic and gnomic in character, the great collection called Die Weisheit des Brahmanen is entirely so. The poems composing this bulky work appeared in installments during the period 1836-1839, and, while many of them, as will be shown below, are the outcome of Rueckert's Oriental studies, the majority simply embody general reflections on anything and everything that happened to engage the poet's attention. "Es muss alles hinein, was ich eben lese: vor acht Wochen Spinoza, vor vierzehn Tagen Astronomie, jetzt Grimms ueberschwenglich gehaltreiche Deutsche Mythologie, alles unter der nachlaessig vorgehaltenen Brahmanenmaske...."[187] These are the author's own words and render further detailed characterization of the work superfluous. It is well known that the sources for the great didactic collection, even for that part of it which is not composed of reflections on matters of contemporary history, politics and literature, or relating to questions of family and friendship, are more Occidental than Oriental.[188] In fact, the Brahmanic character of the wisdom here expounded consists mainly in the contemplative spirit of reposeful didacticism which pervades the entire collection. Nor is there anything Oriental about the form of the poems,—the rhymed Alexandrine reigning supreme with wearisome monotony.
A detailed discussion of the Weisheit, therefore, even if it were possible within the limits of this dissertation, will not be attempted; the less so, as such a discussion, so far as the Oriental side, at least, is concerned, would be very much of the same nature as that given of the Brahmanische Erzaehlungen. A general Oriental influence, especially of the Bhagavadgita-philosophy or of Rumi's pantheism, is noticeable enough in many places,[189] but particular instances of such influence are not hard to find. We shall adduce only a few, taken from the fifth division or Stufe, called Leben. Of these there are taken from the Hitopadesa Nos. 25 (Hit. i. couplet 179; tr. Hertel, 141), 26 (ib. i. 178; tr. Hertel, 140), 111 (ib. i. couplet 80; Wilkins' tr. p. 56). From the Gulistan are taken Nos. 290 (Gul. i. 13; K.S. dist. p. 42), 326 (ibid. vii. 20; K.S. dist. p. 230), 366 (ibid. vii. 20; K.S. p. 232). No. 60 was probably suggested by the fable of the ass and the camel in Jami's Baharistan (tr. K.S. p. 179). No. 476 draws a moral from the fact that the Persian title mirza means either "scribe" or "prince," according to its position before or behind the person's name. In No. 201 we recognize a Persian proverb: [Arabic] "little goat, do not die; spring is coming, you will eat clover." No. 364:
"Herr Strauss, wenn ein Kameel du bist, so trage mir!" Ich bin ein Vogel. "Flieg!" Ich bin ein Trampeltier
is also a Persian proverb and is absolutely unintelligible, unless one happens to know that the Persian word for "ostrich" is [Arabic], literally "camel-bird."
Again, to cite from other Stufen, Firdausi's lines, already used by Goethe in his Divan (see p. 25 above), furnish the text for a moral poem, p. 487 (18). The Persian notion of the peacock being ashamed of his ugly feet (cf. Gul. ii. 8, qit'ah) is put to a similar use on p. 463 (162). Some poems are moralizingly descriptive of Indic customs, e.g., p. 157 (11), where reverence for the guru or "teacher" is inculcated (cf. Manu ii, 71, 228) and pp. 10, 11 (18, 19), where the conditions are set forth under which the Vedas may be read (cf. Manu iv. 101-126, or Yajn. i. 142-151). A comparison is instituted between the famous court of Vikramaditya and his seven gems, of which Kalidasa was one, and that of Karl August of Weimar and his poetic circle, p. 148 (39).
Trivial and empty rhyming is of course abundant in such an uncritical mass of verse, and we also meet with insipid puns, like that on the Arabic word din, "religion," and the German word dienen, p. 498 (48).
These examples, we believe, will suffice for our purpose. With the philosophical part of the Weisheit we are not here concerned.
* * * * *
A great many Oriental poems are scattered throughout the collection which bears the title of Pantheon (vol. vii.). We may mention "Die gefallenen Engel," p. 286, the legend of Harut and Marut, "Wischnu auf der Schlange," p. 286, "Die nackten Weisen," p. 287, and others. Some poems in this collection are in spirit akin to the Oestliche Rosen, e.g. "Becher und Wein," p. 291, "Der Traum," p. 283, and the "Vierzeilen," pp. 481, 482. Besides this, the gazal-form occurs repeatedly, e.g. "Fruehlingshymne," p. 273. So fond does Rueckert seem to have been of this form, that he employs it even for a poem on such an unoriental subject as Easter, p. 189 (2).
This collection is furthermore of interest from the biographical side, as often giving us Rueckert's opinions. Thus we find evidence that he was by no means onesidedly prejudiced in favor of things Oriental. Referring to the myth of fifty-three million Apsarases having sprung from the sea,[190] he states (p. 24), that if he were to be the judge, these fifty-three million nymphs bedecked with jewels would have to bow before the one Aphrodite in her naked glory. And again in "Rueckkehr," p. 51, the poet confesses that having wandered to the East to forget his misery and finding thorns in the rose-gardens of Persia, and demons, misshapen gods and monkeys acting the parts of heroes in India, he is glad to return to the Iliad and Odyssey (cf. also "Zu den oestlichen Rosen," p. 153).
Rueckert was evidently aware of his tendency to overproduction. He offers an explanation in "Spruchartiges," p. 157:
Mir ist Verse zu machen und kuenstliche Vers' ein Beduerfnis, Fehlt mir ein eigenes Lied, so uebersetz' ich mir eins.
And again to his own question, Musst du denn immer dichten?, p. 159, he answers:
Ich denke nie ohne zu dichten, Und dichte nie ohne zu denken.
Graf von Schack has aptly applied to Rueckert's poems the famous sentence which a Spaniard pronounced about Lope de Vega, that no poet wrote so many good plays, but none also so many poor ones.[191]
* * * * *
Whatever defects it may have, Rueckert's Oriental work is nevertheless indisputably of the greatest importance to German literature. More than any one else he brought over into it a new spirit and new forms; and it is due primarily to his unsurpassed technical skill that the German language is to-day the best medium for an acquaintance, not only with the literature of the West, but also with that of the East.
FOOTNOTES:
[145] See Beyer, Friedrich Rueckert, Fkft. a. M. 1868, pp. 101, 102.
[146] Vol. v. pp. 200-237.
[147] So Hammer himself thought at the time. See Rob. Boxberger, Rueckert-Studien, Gotha, 1878, p. 224. Such also was the opinion of the scholarly von Schack, Strophen des Omar Chijam, Stuttg. 1878, Nachwort, p. 117, note. A copy of the original divan of Rumi has not been accessible to me.
[148] Cf. for instance No. 8, in ii. with Red. p. 175, and No. 24 in ii. p. 235, with Red. p. 188.
[149] Vol. v. ii. 25, p. 236.
[150] Cf. Hafid, Saqi Namah, couplets 77, 78 for the three names mentioned above. The figure is most familiar to the English reader from Fitzgerald's version, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Boston, 1899, p. 211, xxxvii. See also 'Umar Xayyam ed. Whinfield, London, 1883, No. 466.
[151] They were published in Deutscher Musenalmanach, 1838, and do not belong properly to the collection here discussed.
[152] See essay on this by Robert Boxberger in Rueckert-Studien, pp. 210-278. Also Beyer, Neue Mittheil. vol. i. p. 213; vol. ii. pp. 201-204 for the date of many of these poems.
[153] Also a few of the Vierzeilen-Sprueche, pp. 102-108, e.g. No. 30=Nitis. 31.
[154] Friedr. Rueckert, Grammatik, Poetik u. Rhetorik der Perser, ed. W. Pertsch, Gotha, 1874, p. 187.
[155] Ibid. p. 360.
[156] Fr. Wilken, Hist. Gasnevid. Berol. 1832, p. 13, Latin p. 148.
[157] Cf. transl. of Baharistan for Kama Shastra Society, Benares, 1887, p. 180. The Persian text of these fables appeared in 1805 in the chrestomathy appended to Fr. Wilken's Institutiones ad Fundamenta Linguae Persicae, Lipsiae, 1805, pp. 172-181.
[158] This poem was mistranslated by Hammer in his Divan des Hafis, Tueb. 1812, vol. ii. p. 553. Bodenstedt has given a version in rhymed couplets: Der Saenger von Schiras, Berl. 1877, p. 129.
[159] For Nidami I have used a lithographed edition published at Shiraz, A.H. 1312. In Wilberforce Clarke's transl. of the Iskandar Namah, London, 1881, the couplet in question is the forty-third.
[160] Cf. for Persian text Garcin de Tassy, Mantic Uttair, Paris, 1863. Also French transl. p. 1 seq.
[161] See Jas. W. Redhouse, The Mesnevi of Mevlana (our Lord) Jelalu-d-din, Muhammed, er-Rumi, Lond. 1881, B. i. p. 19. For Rueckert's source see Boxberger, op. cit. p. 224.
[162] See H. Ethe, Neupers. Litt. in Grdr. iran. Phil. vol. ii. p. 289.
[163] Wilh. Bacher, Nizamis Leben u. Werke, Leipz. 1871, p. 119 and n. 4.
[164] Memoires sur divers Antiquites de la Perse, et sur les Medailles des Rois de la dynastie des Sassanides, suivis de l'Histoire de cette Dynastie traduite du Persan de Mirkhond par A.I. Silv. de Sacy, Paris, 1793.
[165] Mohammedi Filii Chavendschahi vulgo Mirchondi Historia Samanidarum Pers. ed. Frid. Wilken, Goettingae, 1808.
Mohammedi Filii Chondschahi vulgo Mirchondi Historia Gasnevidarum Persice ed. Frid. Wilken, Berol. 1832.
Geschichte der Sultane aus dem Geschlechte Bujeh nach Mirchond, Wilken in Hist. philos. Abh. der kgl. Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Berlin, Berl. 1837. (This work from 1835.)
[166] Mirchonds Geschichte der Seldschuken, aus d. Pers. zum ersten Mal uebers. etc., Joh. Aug. Vullers, Giessen, 1837.
[167] A complete list of the portions of Mirchvand's work edited and published by European scholars before 1837 may be found in Zenker's Bibl. Orient., Nos. 871-881. Nos 874, 875 and 879 have not been accessible to me.
[168] A letter given by Boxberger in op. cit. p. 74 shows that Rueckert asked for the loan of this book.
[169] Histoire de Yemineddoula Mahmoud, tr. par A.I. Silv. de Sacy in Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibl. Nat., tom. iv.
[170] For a similar form of the story see Gobineau, Histoire des Perses, Paris, 1869, vol. ii. pp. 9, 10, where the story is given on the authority of a Parsi work, the "Tjehar-e-Tjemen" (i.e. Cahar-i-Caman, "the four lawns").
[171] For the romance about this man see Th. Noeldeke, Tabari, pp. 474-478.
[172] Lithogr. ed., p. 23. See also Malcolm, op. cit. i. 196; Red. p. 107.
[173] Deguignes, Hist. Gen. des Huns, des Turcs, des Mogols, et des autres Tartares occidentaux, etc. Paris, 1756-1758, vol. ii. pp. 209, 223; Malcolm, op. cit. i. pp. 211, 218.
[174] See Elphinstone's Hist. of India, Lond., 1841, vol. ii. pp. 10-12; also Elliot, The History of India as told by its own historians, Lond. 1867-1877, vol. ii. pp. 332-335, 337, where the story is not so romantic as in Rueckert's poem.
[175] Taken from Red. p. 183, where it is given as from Rumi. See above, p. 6.
[176] Gesta Roman. ed. Herm. Oesterly. Berl. 1872, c. 167. For bibliography of this fable see W.A. Clouston, A Group of Eastern Romances, 1889, pp. 563-566, pp. 448-452.
[177] Book of the Thousand and One Nights, by John Payne, Lond. 1894, vol. v. p. 153.
[178] Ibid. p. 168.
[179] Ibid. p. 199.
[180] In Juedische Parabeln, vol. 26, p. 359; see also Bacher, Nizamis Leben u. Werke, p. 117, n. 4.
[181] These episodes are outlined in Hammer, Red. p. 118; see Malcolm, op. cit. i. 55, 56.
[182] We call attention to the fact that the fourth division of this collection (pp. 392-439 in our edition) is made up of poems which really belong to the Weisheit des Brahmanen.
[183] Jackson, Die iran. Religion in Grdr. iran. Phil. ii. pp. 629, 630.
[184] Elliot, Hist. of India, vol. v. pp. 160-175; 324-328.
[185] Elphinstone, Hist. of India, vol. ii. pp. 229-301 and note, where the legend of the queen firing silver balls is given on the authority of Xafi Xan. Elliot, op. cit. vi. 99-101.
[186] The History of the Late Revolution of the Empire of the Great Mogul, Lond. 1671, pp. 106-131. See also Elliot, op. cit. vol. vii. pp. 220-224, and Elphinstone, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 425 seq., where a slightly different account of the battle is given.
[187] Letter to Melchior Meyr, Dec. 25, 1836, cited by C. Beyer in Nachgelassene Ged. Fr. Rueckerts. Wien, 1877, pp. 210, 211.
[188] Koch, Der Deutsche Brahmane, Breslau (Deutsche Buecherei, Serie iv. Heft 23), p. 22.
[189] Ibid. pp. 18-22. For Rumi's influence see esp. in vol. viii. of the edition cited, pp. 544. 7, 566. 74 et al.
[190] In Ramay. i. 45, where the story of their origin is briefly given, we read that sixty kotis, i.e. 600,000,000 (a koti being 10,000,000), came forth from the sea, not reckoning their numberless female attendants.
[191] Schack, Ein halbes Jahrhundert, Stuttg. Berl. Wien, 1894, vol. ii. p. 41. See also Koch, op. cit. pp. 11-13; Rud. Gottschall, Fried. Rueckert in Portraits u. Studien, Leipz. 1870, vol. i. pp. 163-166; Rich. Meyer, Gesch. der Litt. des 19 Jahrh. Berl. 1890, p. 56.
CHAPTER IX.
HEINE.
Becomes Interested in India through Schlegel—Influence of India's Literature on his Poetry—Interest in the Persian Poets—Persian Influence on Heine—His Attitude toward the Oriental Movement.
"Was das Sanskrit-Studium selbst betrifft, so wird ueber den Nutzen desselben die Zeit entscheiden. Portugiesen, Hollaender und Englaender haben lange Zeit jahraus, jahrein auf ihren grossen Schiffen die Schaetze Indiens nach Hause geschleppt; wir Deutsche hatten immer das Zusehen. Aber die geistigen Schaetze Indiens sollen uns nicht entgehen. Schlegel, Bopp, Humboldt, Frank u. s. w. sind unsere jetzigen Ostindienfahrer; Bonn und Muenchen werden gute Faktoreien sein."
With these words Heine sent forth his "Sonettenkranz" to A.W. von Schlegel in 1821.[192] These sonnets show what a deep impression the personality and lectures of the famous romanticist made on him while he was a student at Bonn, in 1819 and 1820. Schlegel had just then been appointed to the professorship of Literature at the newly created university, and to his lectures Heine owed the interest for India which manifests itself in many of his poems, and which continued even in later years when his relations to his former teacher had undergone a complete change.
He never undertook the study of Sanskrit. His interest in India was purely poetic. "Aber ich stamme aus Hindostan, und daher fuehle ich mich so wohl in den breiten Sangeswaeldern Valmikis, die Heldenlieder des goettlichen Ramo bewegen mein Herz wie ein bekanntes Weh, aus den Blumenliedern Kalidasas bluehen mir hervor die suessesten Erinnerungen" (Ideen, vol. v. p. 115)—these words, with some allowance perhaps for the manner of the satirist, may well be taken to characterize the poet's attitude towards India. Instinctively he appropriated to himself the most beautiful characteristics of Sanskrit poetry, its tender love for the objects of nature, for flowers and animals and the similes and metaphors inspired thereby, and he invests them with all the grace and charm peculiar to his muse. Some of his finest verses owe their inspiration to the lotus; and in that famous poem "Die Lotosblume aengstigt,"—so beautifully set to music by Schumann—the favorite flower of India's poets may be said to have found its aesthetic apotheosis. As is well known, there are two kinds of lotuses, the one opening its leaves to the sun (Skt. padma, pankaja), the other to the moon (Skt. kumuda, kairava). Both kinds are mentioned in Sakuntala (Act. V. Sc. 4, ed. Kale, Bombay, 1898, p. 141): kumudanyeva sasankah savita bhodhayati pankajanyeva "the moon wakes only the night lotuses, the sun only the day lotuses."[193] It is the former kind, the nymphaea esculenta, of which Heine sings, and his conception of the moon as its lover is distinctively Indic and constantly recurring in Sanskrit literature. Thus at the beginning of the first book of the Hitopadesa the moon is called the lordly bridegroom of the lotuses.[194]
The splendor of an Indic landscape haunts the imagination of the poet. On the wings of song he will carry his love to the banks of the Ganges (vol. i. p. 98), to that moonlit garden where the lotus-flowers await their sister, where the violets peep at the stars, the roses whisper their perfumed tales into each other's ears and the gazelles listen, while the waves of the sacred river make sweet music. And again in a series of sonnets addressed to Friederike (Neue Ged. vol. ii. p. 65) he invites her to come with him to India, to its palm-trees, its ambra-blossoms and lotus-flowers, to see the gazelles leaping on the banks of the Ganges, and the peacocks displaying their gaudy plumage, to hear Kokila singing his impassioned lay. He sees Kama in the features of his beloved, and Vasanta hovering on her lips; her smile moves the Gandharvas in their golden, sunny halls to song.
* * * * *
Allusions to episodes from Sanskrit literature are not infrequent in Heine's writings. The famous struggle between King Visvamitra with the sage Vasistha for example is mockingly referred to in two stanzas (vol. i. p. 146).[195] His own efforts to win the favor of a certain Emma (Neue Ged. ii. 54) the poet likens to the great act of penance by which King Bhagiratha brought down the Ganges from heaven.[196]
* * * * *
Heine's prose-writings also furnish abundant proofs of his interest in and acquaintance with Sanskrit literature. In the opening chapters of the Buch Le Grand (c. 4, vol. v. p. 114) he brings before us another vision of tropical Indic splendor. In his sketches from Italy (Reiseb. ii. vol. vi. p. 137) he draws a parallel between the priesthood of Italy and that of India, which is anything but flattering to either. It is also not correct; he notices, to be sure, that in the Sanskrit drama (of which he knows only Sakuntala and Mrcchakatika) the role of buffoon is assigned invariably to a Brahman, but he is ignorant of the origin of this singular custom.[197] In his essay on the Romantic School, when speaking of Goethe's godlike repose, he introduces by way of illustration the well-known episode from the Nala-story where Damayanti distinguishes her lover from the gods who had assumed his form by the blinking of his eyes (vol. ix. p. 52). In the same essay (ibid. pp. 49, 50), he bestows enthusiastic praise on Goethe's Divan, and this brings us to the question of Persian influence upon Heine.
* * * * *
Starting as he did on his literary career at the time when Goethe's Divan and Rueckert's Oestliche Rosen had inaugurated the Hafizian movement in German literature, it would have been strange if he had remained entirely outside of the sphere of its influence. As a matter of fact, he took some interest in Persian poetry almost from the outset of his poetical activity, as his letters clearly show. As early as 1821, he mentions Sa'di with the epithet herrlich, calls him the Persian Goethe and cites one of his couplets (Gul. ii. 48, qit'ah; K.S. p. 122) in the version of Herder.[198] In April, 1823, he writes from Berlin that during the preceding winter he has studied the non-Semitic part of Asia,[199] and the following year in a letter to Moser[200] he speaks of Persian as "die suesse, rosige, leuchtende Bulbulsprache," and goes on to imagine himself a Persian poet in exile among Germans. "O Firdusi! O Ischami! (sic for Jami) O Saadi! Wie elend ist euer Bruder! Ach wie sehne ich mich nach den Rosen von Schiras." Such a rose he calls in one of his Nordsee-poems "die Hafisbesungene Nachtigallbraut" ("Im Hafen," vol. i. p. 218).
Yet, judging from the familiar epigrams of Immermann, which Heine cites at the end of Norderney (Reiseb. i. vol. v. p. 101) as expressive of his own sentiments, he seems to have held but a poor opinion of the West-Eastern poetry that followed in the wake of Goethe's Divan. He certainly never attempted anything like an imitation of this poetry, and Oriental form appealed to him even less. In the famous, or rather infamous, passage of the Reisebilder (vol. vi. pp. 125-149), where he makes his savage attack on Platen, he ridicules that poet's Ghaselen and speaks derisively of their formal technique as "schaukelnde Balancierkuenste" (ibid. p. 136). It is probable, however, that he judged the gazal form not so much on its own merits as on the demerits of his adversary. It is certain at any rate that he has nowhere made use of this form of versification.
Persian influence is not noticeable in his earlier poems;[201] his Buch der Lieder shows no distinctive traces of it. His later poems, Neue Gedichte (1844) and Romanzero (1851), on the other hand, show it unmistakably. The Persian image of the rose and the nightingale is of frequent occurrence. In a poem on Spring (Neue Ged. vol. ii. p. 26) we read:
Und mir selbst ist dann, als wuerd' ich Eine Nachtigall und saenge Diesen Rosen meine Liebe, Traeumend sing' ich Wunderklaenge—.
The image recurs repeatedly in the Neue Gedichte, e.g. Neuer Fruehling, Nos. 7, 9, 11, 20, 26; Verschiedene, No. 7, and in Romanzero (vol. iii.), pp. 42, 178, 253. Even in the prose-writings it is found, e.g. Florentinische Naechte (vol. iii. p. 43), Gedanken und Einfaelle (vol. xii. 309).
Again, when Heine speaks of pearls that are pierced and strung on a silken thread ("Kluge Sterne," Neue Ged. vol. ii. p. 106), he is intensely Persian; still more so when he calls Jehuda ben Halevy's verses (Romanz. vol. iii. p. 136):
Perlenthraenen, die, verbunden Durch des Reimes goldnen Faden, Aus der Dichtkunst gueldnen Schmiede Als ein Lied hervorgegangen.
The Persian fancy of the moth and candle-flame seems to have been in his mind when he wrote ("Die Libelle," vol. ii. p. 288):
Knisternd verzehren die Flammen der Kerzen Die Kaefer und ihre liebenden Herzen....
Still another Persian idea, familiar to us from a preceding chapter, is the peacock ashamed of his ugly feet ("Unvolkommenheit," Romanz. vol. iii. p. 103).
* * * * *
The Persian manner is even employed, and very cleverly, for humorous effect, for instance, in the poem "Jehuda ben Halevy," cited before. In this Heine asks Hitzig for the etymology of the name Schlemihl, but meets with nothing but evasive replies until:
Endlich alle Knoepfe rissen An der Hose der Geduld,
and the poet begins to swear so profanely that the pious Hitzig surrenders unconditionally and hastens to supply the desired information. This image of the "trousers of patience" reminds us strikingly of such Persian phrases as [Arabic] "the cowl of meditation" (Gul. ed. Platts, p. 4), [Arabic] "the carpet of desire" (ib. p. 113), etc., which are a particular ornament of the highly artificial rhymed prose, employed in works like the Gulistan and Baharistan. In the latter, for instance, we read of a youth whose mental equilibrium had been impaired by the charms of a handsome girl: [Arabic] "he tore the garment of prudence and put on the rags of disgrace."[202]
The description of a countess in words like those which Heine puts into the mouth of a Berlin chamber-musician: "Cypressenwuchs, Hyacinthenlocken, der Mund ist Ros' und Nachtigall zu gleicher Zeit," ... (Briefe aus Berlin. No. 3, vol. v. p. 205) furnishes another instance in point.
And lastly, we must mention one of the best known of Heine's poems, the trilogy "Der Dichter Firdusi," the subject of which is the famous legend of Mahmud's ingratitude to Persia's greatest singer and his tardy repentance. We may add that scholars are not inclined to accept this legend as historical in all its parts; certainly not in its artistic and effective ending. This, of course, has nothing to do with the literary merit of the poem, which is deservedly ranked as one of Heine's happiest efforts.[203]
* * * * *
After all, however, it is clear that Heine is in no sense an orientalizing poet or a follower of the Hafizian tendency which became the vogue under the influence of Goethe, Rueckert and Platen. With him the Oriental element never was more than an incidental feature, strictly subordinated to his own poetic individuality, and never dominating or effacing it, as is the case with most of the professedly "Persian" singers,—those "Perser von dem Main, der Elbe, von der Isar, von der Pleisse"—who thought, as has justly been remarked, that they had penetrated into the Persian spirit by merely mentioning guls and bulbuls. Heine had no use for such trivial superficiality. The singer of the "Loreley" sang as he felt, and in spite of so many apparently un-German sentiments in his writings he had a right to say (Die Heimkehr, vol. i. p. 131):
Ich bin ein deutscher Dichter, Bekannt im deutschen Land; Nennt man die besten Namen, So wird auch der meine genannt.
FOOTNOTES:
[192] Printed as Nachwort in the Bemerker, No. 10, Suppl. to Gesellschafter, No. 77. See also H. Heines Leben u. Werke, Ad. Strodtmann, Hamb. 1883, vol. i. p. 78.
[193] Similarly Bhartrhari, Nitis. 74.
[194] Atha kadacid avasannayam ratrav astacalacudavalambini bhagavati kumudininayake candramasi.... (ed. Bomb. 1891, p. 7). "Once upon a time when the night was spent and the moon, the lordly lover of the lotuses, was reclining on the crest of the western mountain...." Of other allusions to this lotus we may cite Vikramorvasi, Act 3. ed. Parab and Telang, Bomb. 1888, p. 79; Sak. Act iii. ed. Kale, p. 81, and Act iv. ib. p. 96.
[195] The episode occurs in Ramay. i. 51-56. It had been translated as early as 1816 by Bopp in his Conjugationssystem der Sanskritsprache.
[196] Mahabh. iii. 108, 109; Ramay. i. 42, 43; Markandeya Pur. and other works. Heine's acquaintance was due undoubtedly to Schlegel's translation in Indische Bibliothek, 1820. (Aug. Schlegel, Werke, iii. 20-44.)
[197] See article on this subject by M. Schuyler, Jr., in JAOS. vol. xx. 2. p. 338 seq.
[198] Letter to Friedr. Steinmann, Saemmtl. Werke, Hamb. 1876, vol. xix. No. 7, p. 43.
[199] Ibid. No. 15, p. 80.
[200] Ibid. No. 38, pp. 200, 201.
[201] One poem of his earliest period, Die Lehre (vol. iii. p. 276), published in Hamburgs Waechter, 1817 (Strodtmann, op. cit. i. 54), does seem to show it. In this the young bee, heedless of motherly advice, does not beware of the candle-flame and so "Flamme gab Flammentod." We at once recognize a familiar Persian thought, and are reminded of Goethe's fine line, "Das Lebend'ge will ich preisen das nach Flammentod sich sehnet." (Selige Sehnsucht, ed. Loeper, iv. 26.)
[202] O.M. v. Schlechta-Wssehrd, Der Fruehlingsgarten von Mewlana Abdurrahman Dschami, Wien, 1846. Persian text, p. 38.
[203] For a discussion of the legend see Noeldeke in Grdr. iran. Phil. vol. ii. pp. 154, 155, 158.
CHAPTER X.
BODENSTEDT.
Lieder des Mirza Schaffy—Are Original Poems—Nachlass—Aus Morgenland und Abendland—Sakuntala, a Narrative Poem.
The Hafid tendency was carried to the height of popularity by Friedrich Martin Bodenstedt, whose Lieder des Mirza Schaffy met with a phenomenal success, running through one hundred and forty editions in Germany alone during the lifetime of the author, besides being translated into many foreign languages.[204] These songs have had a remarkable career, which the author himself relates in an essay appended to the Nachlass.[205]
According to the prevailing opinion, Mirza Schaffy was a great Persian poet, a rival of Sa'di and Hafid, and Bodenstedt was the translator of his songs. Great, therefore, was the astonishment of the European, and particularly the German public, when it was discovered that the name of this famous poet was utterly unknown in the East, even in his own native land. As early as 1860, Professor Brugsch, when in Tiflis, had searched for the singer's grave, but in vain; nobody could tell him where a certain Mirza Schaffy lay buried. At last, in 1870, the Russian counsellor Adolph Berge gave an authentic account of the real man and his literary activity.[206] Two things were clearly established: first, that such a person as Mirza Safi' had really existed; second, that this person was no poet. On this second point the few scraps of verse which Berge had been able to collect, and which he submitted in the essay cited above, leave absolutely no doubt. So, in 1874, when Bodenstedt published another poetic collection of Mirza Schaffy, he appended an essay wherein he explained clearly the origin and the nature of the original collection bearing that name.
According to his own statements, these poems are not translations. They are entirely his own,[207] and were originally not an independent collection, but part of the biographical romance Tausend und ein Tag im Orient.[208] This should be kept in mind if we wish to estimate them at their true value.
Nevertheless the poems are genuinely Oriental and owe their existence to the author's stay in the East, particularly in Tiflis, during the winter 1843-44. But for this residence in the Orient, so Bodenstedt tells us,[209] a large part of them would never have seen the light.
In form, however, they are Occidental—the gazal being used only a few times (e.g. ii. 135, or in the translations from Hafid in chap. 21: ii. 70=H. 8; ii. 72=H. 155, etc.) In spirit they are like Hafid. "Mein Lehrer ist Hafis, mein Bethaus ist die Schenke," so Mirza Schaffy himself proclaims (i. p. 96), and images and ideas from Hafid, familiar to us from preceding chapters, meet us everywhere. The stature like a cypress, the nightingale and the rose, the verses like pearls on a string, and others could be cited as instances. Other authors are also laid under contribution; thus the comparison of Mirza Schaffy to a bee seems to have been suggested by a maxim of Sa'di (Gul. viii. No. 77, ed. Platts; K.S. p. 268), where a wise man without practice is called a bee without honey, and the thought in the last verse of "Die Rose auch" (vol. ii. p. 85), that the rose cannot do without dirt and the nightingale feeds on worms, is a reminiscence of a story of Nidami which we had occasion to cite in the chapter on Rueckert (see p. 43). In one case a poem contains a Persian proverb. Mirza Schaffy criticises the opinions of the Shah's viziers in the words: "Ich hoere das Geklapper einer Muehle, doch sehe ich kein Mehl" (i, 85), a literal rendering of
[Arabic]
Of course the mullas and hypocrites in general are roundly scored, especially in chapter 27, where the sage, angered by the reproaches which the mustahid has made to him for his bad conduct and irreligious poetry, gives vent to his sentiments of disgust in a number of poems (vol. ii. p. 137 seq.). Bodenstedt undoubtedly had in mind the persecutions to which Hafid was subject, culminating in the refusal of the priests to give him regular burial and giving rise to the famous story of the fatva.
The tavern and the praise of wine are, of course, bound to be prominent features. In the same credo where Mirza Schaffy proclaims Hafid as his teacher he also proclaims the tavern as his house of prayer (i. p. 96), and so he celebrates the day when he quit the mosque for the wine-house (i. p. 98; cf. H. 213. 4). The well known poem "Aus dem Feuerquell des Weines" (i. p. 106) is in sentiment exactly like a quatrain of 'Umar Xayyam (Bodl. ed. Heron-Allen, Boston, 1898, No. 78; Whinfield, 195); the last verse is based on a couplet of Sa'di (Gul. i. 4, last qit'ah, Platts, p. 18) which is cited immediately after the poem itself (i. p. 107).
A collection of Hafizian songs would scarcely be complete without a song in praise of Shiraz. This we get in vol. ii. p. 48, where Shiraz is compared to Tiflis; and just as the former was made famous through Hafid, so the latter will become famous through Mirza Schaffy. Little did the worthy sage of Ganja dream that this would come literally true. Yet it did. The closing lines of the poem—
Beruehmt ist Tiflis durch dein Lied Vom Kyros bis zum Rhein geworden—
are no empty boast; they simply express a fact.
None of Bodenstedt's later poetic publications ever attained the success of the Mirza Schaffy songs, and, it may be added, none of them equalled those songs in merit. In 1874 the author resolved once more to try the magic of that name and so he launched forth a collection called Aus dem Nachlasse Mirza Schaffy's, and to emphasize the Persian character of these poems the Persian translation of the title, [Arabic], appeared on the title-page. In spite of all this, however, the Orientalism in these poems is more artificial than natural; it is not felt as something essential without which the poems could not exist. The praise of wine, which is the main theme of the second book,—for the collection is divided into seven books,—is certainly not characteristically Persian; European, and especially German poets have also been very liberal and very proficient in bibulous verse. The maxims that make up the third and a portion of the fourth book are for the most part either plainly unoriental, or else so perfectly general, and, we may add, so hopelessly commonplace, as to fit in anywhere. Some, however, are drawn from Persian sources. Thus from the Gulistan we have in the third book, Nos. 8 (Gul. Pref. p. 7, last qit'ah), 9 (ibid. p. 6, first three couplets), 12 (ibid. iii. 27, math. p. 89) and 36 (saying of the king in Gul. i. 1, p. 13). No. 31 is from the introduction to the Hitopadesa (third couplet).[210] "Die Cypresse," p. 103, is suggested by Gul. viii. 111 (K.S. 81).
The Oriental stories which form the contents of the fifth book are of small literary value. Some of them read like versified lessons in Eastern religion, as, for instance, "Der Sufi," p. 111, which is a rhymed exposition of a Sufistic principle,[211] and "Der Wuestenheilige," which enunciates through the lips of Zoroaster himself his doctrine that good actions are worth more than ascetic practices.[212] On p. 121 Ibn Yamin is credited with the story of the poet and the glow-worm, which is found in Sa'di's Bustan (ed. Platts and Rogers, Lond. 1891, p. 127; tr. Barbier de Meynard, Paris, 1880, p. 163). The famous story of Yusuf and Zalicha, as related by Jami and Firdausi, is the subject of the longest poem in the book and is told in a somewhat flippant manner, p. 135 seq. The stories told of Sa'di's reception at court and his subsequent banishment through the calumny of the courtiers, pp. 123-128, seem to be pure invention; at least there is nothing, as far as we know, in the life or writings of the Persian poet that could have furnished the material for these poems.[213]
In 1882, still another collection of Bodenstedt's poems, entitled Aus Morgenland und Abendland, made its appearance. Like the Nachlass it also has seven divisions, of which only the second, fourth and sixth are of interest for us as containing Oriental material.[214]
One poem, however, in the first book, "An eine Kerze," p. 5, should be mentioned as of genuinely Persian character. The candle as symbolical of the patient, self-sacrificing lover is a familiar feature of Persian belles-lettres (cf. H. 299. 4; 301. 5; or Rueckert's "Die Kerze und die Flasche," see above, p. 43). The last line reminds us of a verse of Jurjani, cited by Jami in the Baharistan (ed. Schlechta-Wssehrd, p. 111), exhorting the ruler to be like a flame, always pointing upwards.
The second book brings another contribution of sententious wisdom, most of which is neither new nor Oriental. Of Oriental sources the Gulistan is best represented. From it are taken Nos. 8 (Gul. ii. 4, last couplet), 9 (ibid. i. 1), 41 (ibid. i. 21, prose-passage before the math. p. 33; K.S. p. 55), 43 (ibid. i. 17, coupl. 4, p. 29; K.S. p. 49), 52 (ibid. i. 29, coupl. 2; K.S. p. 66). No. 47, which is credited to Ibn Yamin, is from the Baharistan (tr. K.S. p. 46; Red. p. 338). No. 49 is a very free rendering of a quatrain of 'Umar Xayyam (Whinf. 347; Red. p. 81).[215]
The fourth book offers stories, all of which, except the first two, are from Persian sources. Thus from the Gulistan are "Die Berichtigung" (Gul. i. 31; K.S., p. 67) and "Der Koenigsring" (Gul. iii. 27, last part, p. 92; K.S. p. 157). "Nachtigall und Falk" is from Nidami, as was pointed out before (see above, p. 43). "Das Paradies der Glaeubigen" is from Jami (Red. p. 324; given there as from the Subhat ul-abrar) and "Ein Bild der Welt" is from Ibn Yamin (Red. p. 236).[216] The longest story of the book is "Dara und Sara," which gives the legend of the discovery of wine by King Jamsid, told by Mirchvand in his Raudat us-safa.[217] Besides changing the name of the king to Dara, in order to make the poem more romantic, we find that Bodenstedt has made some decided alterations and has considerably amplified the legend. Thus in his version the motive of the lady's attempt at suicide is despised love, while in the original it is only a prosaic nervous headache. In both cases, however, the sequel is the same.
Finally, the sixth book offers very free paraphrases of poems by Rumi, Sa'di, Amir Mu'izzi and Anvari, who, oddly enough, are termed "Vorlaeufer des Mirza Schaffy." The source for most of these poems was evidently Hammer's Geschichte der schoenen Redekuenste Persiens. To realize with what freedom Bodenstedt has treated his models, it is only necessary to compare some of the poems from Rumi with Hammer's versions, e.g. "Glaube und Unglaube" (Red. p. 175), "Der Mensch und die Welt" (ibid. p. 180), "Des Lebens Kreislauf" (ibid. p. 178), "Wach' auf" (ibid. p. 181). "Die Pilger," p. 188, attributed to Jami, is likewise from Rumi (Red. p. 181; cf. Rueckert, Werke, vol. v. p. 220). The poems from Sa'di can mostly be traced to the Gulistan; they are so freely rendered that they have little in common with the originals except the thought. No. 1 is Gul. ii. 18, qit'ah 1, to which the words of Luqman are added; no. 2 is from Gul. iii. 10, couplet (p. 76; K.S. p. 129); no. 3 is Gul. iii. 27, math. (p. 89; K.S., p. 151); no. 4 is Gul. iii. 27, qit'ah (p. 91; K.S., p. 154) and no. 5 is Gul. i. 39, math. The poem "Heimat und Fremde" is taken from Amir Mu'izzi,[218] the court-poet of Malak Shah, who in turn took it from Anvari. It is cited in the Haft Qulzum to illustrate a kind of poetic theft.[219] "Unterschied" is from Jami (Red. p. 315, given as from Subhat ul-abrar), "Warum" from Ibn Yamin (Red. p. 235); "Die Sterne" and "Die Zeit" are both from Anvari (Red. pp. 98, 99).
* * * * *
So far, Bodenstedt had taken the material for his Oriental poems from Persia, but now he turned to India and in 1887 appeared Sakuntala, a romantic epic in five cantos. In the main it follows the story of Kalidasa's famous drama, but the version in the Mahabharata is also used, and a considerable number of episodes are invented. Even where the account of the drama is followed, changes of a more or less sweeping nature are frequent. We cannot say that they strike us as so many improvements on Kalidasa; they certainly often destroy or obliterate characteristic Indic features. Thus in the drama the failure of the king to recognize Sakuntala is the result of a curse pronounced against the girl by the irascible saint Durvasas, whom she has inadvertently failed to treat with due respect, and the ring is merely a means of breaking the spell. All this is highly characteristic of Hindu thought. In Bodenstedt's poem, however, remembering and forgetting are dependent on a magic quality inherent in the ring itself,—a trait that is at home in almost any literature.[220]
* * * * *
There are, besides, many minor changes. The vidusaka, or fun-making attendant of the king, is left out, and so the warriors express the sentiments that he utters at the beginning of Act 2. Dusyanta does not bid farewell to his beloved in person, but leaves a letter. Again, after he has failed to recognize her, she returns to the hermitage of Kanva, whereas in the drama she is transported to that of Kasyapa on the Hemakuta mountain. So, of course, the aerial ride of the king in Indra's wagon is also done away with.
In many places, on the other hand, the poem follows the drama very closely. For instance, the passage in the first canto describing the mad elephant (pp. 14, 15)[221] is a paraphrase of the warning uttered by one of the holy men in Act 1. Sc. 4 (ed. Kale, p. 40). The discourse of Sakuntala with her friends (pp. 37, 38), the incident of the bee and Priyamvada's playful remark (pp. 38-40) are closely modelled after the fourth scene of Act 1. Many passages of the poem are in fact nothing but translations. Thus the words which the king on leaving, writes to Sakuntala (p. 78):
Doch mein Herz wird stets zurueckbewegt, Wie die wehende Fahne an der Stange, Die man vollem Wind entgegentraegt—
are a pretty close rendering of the final words of the king's soliloquy at the end of Act 1:
gacchati purah sariram dhavati pascad asamstutam cetah cinamsukam iva ketoh prativatam niyamanasya
"my body goes forward; the mind not agreeing with it flies backward like the silken streamer of a banner borne against the wind."
A large part of the whole poem is pure invention, designed to make the story more exciting by means of a greater variety of incident. Such invented episodes, for instance, are the gory battle-scenes that take up the first part of the fourth canto, the omen of the fishes in the fifth, and the episodes in which Bharata plays the chief role in that canto. Some of the things told of this boy, how he knocks down the gate-keeper who refuses to admit his mother, how he strikes the queen Vasumati who had insulted her, and how he slays the assassin whom this jealous queen had sent against him, are truly remarkable in view of the fact that the hero of all these exploits cannot be more than six years of age (see pp. 112, 113). The account in the Mahabharata, to be sure, tells of equally fabulous exploits performed by the youth, but there we move in an atmosphere of the marvelous. In Bodenstedt's poem, however, the supernatural has been almost completely banished, and we cannot help noticing the improbability of these deeds.
FOOTNOTES:
[204] Hebrew by Jos. Choczner, Breslau, 1868; Dutch by van Krieken, Amst. 1875; English by E. d'Esterre, Hamb. 1880; Italian by Giuseppe Rossi, 1884; Polish by Dzialoszye, Warsaw, 1888. See list in G. Schenk, Friedr. Bodenstedt, Ein Dichterleben in seinen Briefen, Berl. 1893, pp. 246-248.
[205] Aus dem Nachlasse Mirza Schaffys, Berl. 1874, pp. 191-223.
[206] In ZDMG. vol. xxiv. pp. 425-432.
[207] With few exceptions, pointed out by Bodenstedt himself, e.g. "Mullah rein ist der Wein" is from the Tartaric. Nachlass, p. 208.
[208] Friedr. Bodenstedts Gesammelte Schriften, Berlin, 1865, 12 vols. Vols. i and ii. All references to the Lieder des M.S. are to this edition.
[209] Nachlass, p. 193.
[210] Or else a saying of Muhammad exactly like it, cited by Prof. Brugsch in Aus dem Morgenlande, Lpz. Recl. Univ. Bibl. 3151-2, p. 57.
[211] Cf. Bodenstedt's remarks on Sufism in Nachtrag, p. 198 seq.
[212] See my article on Religion of Ancient Persia in Progress, vol. iii. No. 5, p. 290.
[213] A complete history of Sa'di's life, drawn from his own writings as well as other sources, is given by W. Bacher, Sa'di's Aphorismen und Sinngedichte, Strassb. 1879. On the relation of the poet to the rulers of his time, see esp. p. xxxv seq.
[214] We cite from the third edition, 1887.
[215] Translated more closely by Bodenstedt in Die Lieder und Sprueche des Omar Chajjam, Breslau, 1881, p. 29.
[216] Schlechta-Wssehrd, Ibn Jemins Bruchstuecke. Wien, 1852, pp. 138, 139.
[217] Tr. David Shea, Hist. of the Early Kings of Persia, Lond. 1832, pp. 102-104; Malcolm. i. p. 10, note b.
[218] Ethe in Grdr. iran. Phil. ii. p. 260; Pizzi, Storia, vol. i. pp. 88, 215.
[219] Rueckert, Gram. Poet. u. Rhet. der Perser, p. 363.
[220] Cf. the story of Charlemagne and the magic stone given to him by a grateful serpent. Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, 1. 130.
[221] We cite from an edition publ. at Leipzig, no date.
CHAPTER XI.
THE MINOR ORIENTALIZING POETS.
SOME LESS KNOWN POETS WHO ATTEMPTED THE ORIENTAL MANNER.
To enumerate the names of all the German poets who affected the Oriental manner would be to give a list of the illustrious obscure. Most of them have only served to furnish another illustration of Horace's famous mediocribus esse poetis. A bare mention of such names as Loeschke, Levitschnigg, Wihl, Stieglitz and von Hermannsthal will suffice.[222] The last mentioned poet gives a striking illustration of the inanity of most of this kind of work. He uses the gazal form for stories about such persons as the Gracchi and Bluecher,[223] and, what is still more curious, for tirades against the Oriental tendency.[224] A poet of different calibre is Daumer, whose Hafis (Hamb. 1846) for a long time was regarded as a translation, whereas the poems of the collection are in reality original productions in Hafid's manner, just like Rueckert's Oestliche Rosen.[225] Their sensuous, passionate eroticism, however, is not a genuine Hafid quality, as we before have seen. The same criticism applies even much more forcibly to Schefer's Hafis in Hellas (Hamburg, 1853).[226] Special mention is due to the gifted, but unfortunate, Heinrich Leuthold, whose Ghaselen deserve to be placed by the side of Platen's. Like Platen and Rueckert, he too proclaims himself a reveller:
Zur Gottheit ward die Schoenheit mir Und mein Gebet wird zum Ghasel.—
But these Ghaselen do not attempt to be so intensely Persian as to reproduce the objectionable features of Persian poetry. Thus Leuthold sings:
Vor allem ein Lebehoch dem Hafis, dem Patriarchen der Zunft!— D'rum bringe die liebliche Schenkin das Gold gefuellter Becher hinein![227]
Evidently the poet sees no necessity for retaining the saqi, but makes the poem more acceptable to Western taste by substituting a "Schenkin" for Platen's "Schenke."
The Oriental story was cultivated by J.F. Castelli. Many of the subjects of his Orientalische Granaten (Dresden, 1852) had already been used by Rueckert. Another Oriental storyteller in verse is Ludwig Bowitsch, whose Sindibad (Leipzig, 1860) contains mostly Arabic material. Friedrich von Sallet has written a poem on Zerduscht[228] which gives the Iranian legend of the attempt made by the sorcerers to burn the newborn child.[229] It would, however, lead us too far were we to mention single poems on Oriental subjects or of Oriental tendency.
* * * * *
Head and shoulders above all these less known poets towers the figure of Count von Schack, who, like Rueckert, combined the poetic gift with the learning of the scholar, and who thus stands out a worthy successor of the German Brahman as a representative of the idea of the Weltlitteratur. A discussion of his work is a fitting close for this investigation.
FOOTNOTES:
[222] On these see Paul Horn, Was verdanken Wir Persien, in Nord u. Sued, Heft 282, p. 386 seq.
[223] Ghaselen, Leipz. Recl. Univ. Bibl. No. 371, pp. 96, 99.
[224] Ibid. pp. 49-54. An einen Freund.
[225] See von Schack, Strophen des Omar Chijam, p. 117.
[226] Horn in article cited, p. 389; Emil Brenning, Leopold Schefer, Bremen, 1884, p. 135.
[227] Gedichte, Frauenfeld, 1879, p. 144 (xvi).
[228] Gesammelte Gedichte, Leipz. Reclam. Nos. 551-3, p. 128.
[229] See Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 29.
CHAPTER XII.
VON SCHACK.
His Fame as Translator of Firdausi—Stimmen vom Ganges—Sakuntala compared with the Original in the Mahabharata—His Oriental Scholarship in his Original Poems—Attitude towards Hafizian Singers.
As an Orientalist, von Schack's scholarship is amply attested by his numerous and excellent translations from Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit. His Heldensagen des Firdusi, as is well known, has become a standard work of German literature. In fact, we may say that his reputation rests more upon his translations than upon his poems.
Though we have consistently refrained from discussing translations, it is felt that the Stimmen vom Ganges, which is a collection of Indic legends from various sources, especially from the Puranas, cannot be left entirely out of consideration.[230] In many respects these poems have the charm of original work. The models moreover are used with great freedom. To cite von Schack's own words: "Fuer eigentliche Uebertragungen koennen diese Dichtungen in der Gestalt, wie sie hier vorliegen, nicht gelten, da bei der Bearbeitung bald groessere bald geringere Freiheit gewaltet hat, auch manches Stoerende und Weitschweifige ausgeschieden wurde; doch hielt ich es fuer unstatthaft, am Wesentlichen des Stoffes und der Motive Aenderungen vorzunehmen. In Gedanken und Ausdruck haben, wenn nicht der jedesmal vorliegende Text, so doch stets Indische Werke zu Vorbildern gedient."[231]
A brief comparison of any one of these poems with the Sanskrit original will show the correctness of this statement. Let us take, as an illustration, the second, which gives the famous legend of Sakuntala from the Mahabharata (i. 69-74; Bombay ed. i. 92-100).
Schack leaves out unnecessary details and wearisome repetitions. Thus the elaborate account of the Brahmans whom the king sees on entering the hermitage of Kanva and their different occupations (Mbh. 70, 37-47) is condensed into fourteen lines, p. 36. Again, in the original, when Sakuntala tells the story of her birth, the speech by which Indra urges Menaka to undertake the temptation of Visvamitra is given at some length (Mbh. 71, 20-26); so also the reply of the timid nymph (ibid. 71, 27-42); the story of the temptation itself is narrated with realistic detail in true Hindu fashion (ibid. 72, 1-9). All this takes up thirty-three slokas. Schack devotes to it barely five lines, p. 38; the speeches of Indra and Menaka he omits altogether. Again, when the king proposes to the fair maid, he enters into a learned disquisition on the eight kinds of marriage, explaining which ones are proper for each caste, which ones are never proper, and so forth; finally he proposes the Gandharva form (Mbh. 73, 6-14). It is needless to say that in Schack's poem the king's proposal is much less didactic and much more direct, pp. 40, 41.
On the other hand, to see how closely the poet sometimes follows his model we need but compare all that follows the words "Kaum war er gegangen," p. 42, to "Dem sind nimmerdar die Goetter gnaedig," p. 47, with the Sanskrit original (Mbh. 73, 24-74, 33).
Minor changes in phrases or words, advisable on aesthetic grounds, are of course frequent. Similes, for instance, appealing too exclusively to Hindu taste, were made more general. Thus in Sakuntala's reply to the king, p. 51, the faults of others are likened in size to sand grains, and those of himself to glebes. In Sanskrit, however, the comparison is to mustard-grains and bilva-fruits respectively. A few lines further on the maid declares:
"So ueberragt mein Stamm denn Weit den deinen, wisse das, Duschmanta!"
which passage in the original reads: avayor antaram pasya meru sarsapor iva, "behold! the difference between us is like that between a mustard-seed and Mount Meru." In the same speech of Sakuntala the Sanskrit introduces a striking simile which Schack omits as too specifically Indic:
murkho hi jalpatam pumsam srutva vacah subhasubhah asubham vakyam adatte purisam iva sukarah prajnas tu jalpatam pumsam srutva vacah subhasubhah gunavad vakyam adatte hamsah ksiram ivambhasah (Mbh. 74. 90, 91.)
"The fool having heard men's speeches containing good and evil chooses the evil just as a hog dirt; but the wise man having heard men's speeches containing good and evil chooses the worthy, just as a swan (separates) milk from water."[232]
We believe that these illustrations will suffice to give an idea of the relation which Schack's poems bear to the originals.
* * * * *
His fondness for things Oriental finds also frequent expression in his own poems. In Naechte des Orients (vol. i. p. 7 seq.),[233] like Goethe before him, he undertakes a poetic Hegira to the East:
Entfliehen lasst mich, fliehn aus den Gewirren Des Occidents zum heitern Morgenland!
So he visits the native towns of Firdausi and Hafid and pays his respect to their memory, and then penetrates also into India, where he hears from the lips of a Buddhist monk an exposition of Nirvana philosophy, which, however, is unacceptable to him (p. 111). The Oriental scenes that are brought before our mind, both in this poem as well as in "Memnon" (vol. vii. p. 5 seq.), are of course portrayed with poetic feeling as well as scholarly accuracy. The haji who owns the wonderful elixir,—which, by the way, is said to come from India (p. 33),—and who interprets each vision that the poet lives through from the standpoint of the pessimistic sceptic, shows the influence of 'Umar Xayyam. In fact he indulges sometimes in unmistakable reminiscences of the quatrains of the famous astronomer-poet, as when he says:
Wie Schattenbilder, die an der Laterne, Wenn sie der Gaukler schiebt, voruebergleiten, So zieht die bloede, willenlose Herde, Die Menschheit mein' ich, ueber diese Erde. (p. 55.)
This is very much the same thought as in the following quatrain of 'Umar (Whinf. 310; Bodl. 108):
[Arabic] [Arabic] [Arabic] [Arabic]
which stands first in Schack's own translation of the Persian poet and is thus rendered:
Fuer eine magische Laterne ist diese ganze Welt zu halten, In welcher wir voll Schwindel leben; Die Sonne haengt darin als Lampe; die Bilder aber und Gestalten Sind wir, die d'ran vorueberschweben.[234]
In his Weihgesaenge (vol. ii. p. 149) Schack sends a greeting to the Orient; in another one of these songs he sings the praises of India (ibid. p. 232), and in still another he apostrophizes Zoroaster (ibid. p. 133). A division of this volume (ii.) bears the title Lotosblaetter. The sight of the scholar's chamber with its Sanskrit manuscripts makes him dream of India's gorgeous scenery and inspires a poem "Das indische Gemach" (vol. x. p. 26).
Oriental stories and legends are also offered, though not frequently. "Mahmud der Gasnevide" (vol. i. p. 299) relates the story of the great sultan's stern justice.[235] "Anahid" (vol. vii. p. 209) gives the famous legend of the angels Harut and Marut, who were punished for their temptation of the beautiful Zuhra, the Arabic Venus.[236] Schack has substituted the old Persian name of Anahita (mod. Pers. nahid) for the Arabic name, and has otherwise also altered the legend considerably.
Schack never attempted to write original poems in Oriental form. The Hafizian movement did not excite his enthusiasm, and for the trifling of the average Hafizian singer he had no use whatever. In a poem by which he conveys his thanks to the sultan for a distinction which the latter had conferred on him he says:
Waer ich, so wie Firdusi, paradiesisch, Ich bohrte dir die Perlen der Kaside Und schlaenge dir das Halsband der Ghasele; Allein wir Deutschen singen kaum hafisisch, Und wenn wir orientalisch sind im Liede, Durchtraben wir die Wuesten als Kamele. (Vol. x. p. 106.)
Even for Bodenstedt's Mirza Schaffy songs he has no great admiration:
Gar viel bedeutet's nicht, mich duenkt! Dem nur, was Rueckert laengst schon besser machte Und Platen, bist du keuchend nachgehinkt. (Vol. x. p. 47.)
FOOTNOTES:
[230] Stimmen vom Ganges. Eine Sammlung Indischer Sagen, 2 Auflage, Stuttgart, 1877. The first edition appeared in 1857. There the eleventh story was Yadu's Meerfahrt (from Harivamsa). In the second edition this was omitted and an imitation of the Nalodaya substituted as an appendix. The sources for each poem are given by the author himself in Nachwort, p. 215, note.
[231] Op. cit. p. 216.
[232] See Lanman, The Milk-drinking Hansas of Sanskrit Poetry, JAOS. vol. 19. 2, pp. 151-158. Goose would be a better translation of the word hamsa than swan.
[233] We cite from the edition mentioned on p. vii.
[234] Strophen des Omar Chijam, Stuttg. 1878. The translation itself dates from an earlier period than the year of publication. The author, speaking of the delay in bringing it before the public, states that Horace's nonumque prematur in annum could be applied in threefold measure to this work (p. 118). Hence the translation was made about 1850, or a little later.
[235] Herder, Briefe zur Befoerderung der Humanitaet, x, ed. Suphan, vol. 18, p. 259; Deguignes, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 172; Francis Gladwin, The Persian Moonshee, Calcutta, 1801, Pers. and Engl. pt. ii. p. 3.
[236] See Hammer, Fundgruben, vol. i. pp. 7, 8.
CHAPTER XIII.
CONCLUSION.
Now that we have come to the end of our investigation, it may be well to survey briefly the whole field and to summarize the results we have reached.
We have seen that to mediaeval Europe India and Persia were lands of magic and enchantment; their languages and literatures were utterly unknown. Whatever influence these literatures exerted on that of Europe was indirect and not recognized. Nor did the Portuguese discoveries effect an immediate change. It was only by slow degrees that the West obtained any knowledge of Eastern thought. The Gulistan and Bustan of Sa'di, some maxims of Bhartrhari and a few scattered fragments were all that was known in Europe of Indic or Persian literature before the end of the eighteenth century.
Then the epoch-making discoveries of Sir William Jones aroused the attention of the Western world and laid the foundations of a new science. New ideas of world-wide significance presented themselves to the European mind. Nowhere were these ideas welcomed with more enthusiasm than in Germany, the home of philological scholarship. Herder pointed the way, and by means of translations and imitations tried to introduce the treasures of Oriental thought into German literature. That he did not meet with unqualified success was due, as we have seen, to his one-sided didactic tendency. To him, however, belongs the credit of the first impulse. Then Friedrich Schlegel founded the study of Sanskrit in Germany, while at the same time Hammer was busily at work spreading a knowledge of the Persian poets in Europe. The effect of the latter's work was instantaneous, for, as has been pointed out, it was his translation of Hafid that inspired the composition of Goethe's Divan and thus started the Oriental movement in Germany.
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