NOTESTOTHE POEMS FROM EASTERN SOURCES.

Page 3.ALEXANDER AT THE GATES OF PARADISE.

See Eisenmenger’s “Entdecktes Judenthum,” v. ii. p. 321, with whom I trust that my readers will not agree, for he has scarcely patience to finish this “narrische Talmudische Fabel,” as he styles it. It reappears, slightly modified, in the Persian tradition, according to which Alexander, having conquered the world, determined to seek out the fountain of life. See the following note. In like manner, in the Christian poems of the middle ages, Alexander is made to recognise at last the vanity and emptiness of all the glory which he has won, and is hardly turned from his purpose of going forth at last in search of the lost Paradise. See Rosenkranz “Gesch. d. Deutschen Poesie in Mittelalter,” p. 367. Very notable is this making of Alexander, and no other—the man from whom the confession comes, that the world has not that which can truly satisfy man’s spirit, but that he still yearns for something beyond. It is like, in the Scripture, the same confession coming from the lips of Solomon; for in each case the experiment has been made under the most favourable circumstances: so that in one case, as in the other, it may be asked, “What can the man do that cometh after the king?”

P. 11.CHIDHER’S WELL.

Of Chidher’s Well, the Eastern λουτρον παλιγγενεσιας, Von Hammer, in his very interesting introduction to his “History of Persian Poetry,” gives a good account. Among other things he says, “Cotemporary with Moses lived the Prophet Chiser, of whom some hold that he is the same with Elias, while others altogether distinguish them. He is one of the chief personages of Eastern Mythology, the ever-ready helper of the oppressed, the Genius of spring, the deliverer in peril, the admonisher of princes, the avenger of unrighteousness, the guide through the wilderness of the world, and, finally, the ever-youthful guardian of the fountain of life. As such he revives the youth of men, and beasts, and plants, gives back lost beauty, and in spring arrays the dead earth with its fresh garments of green. His fountain bestows on whosoever drinks it eternal beauty, youth, and wisdom. What wonder then that all mortals with burning desire seek it, though as yet not one, not even Alexander, the conqueror of the world, who, in quest of it, undertook an expedition into the land of darkness, has found it!” Probably this, his journey through the land of darkness, is but a mythic form of his expedition through the Libyan desert to the temple of Jupiter Ammon.On this poem I may observe, that it is the first of several in the volume written with an arrangement of rhyme hardly familiar to the English reader, which yet is that of a great part, as I believe, of the lyric poetry of the East, and which may not, perhaps, be unworthy of a place among us. According to the laws of the Ghazel,—for poems in this metre are so entitled,—the two first lines must rhyme, and then this rhyme repeats itself in the second line of each succeeding couplet, which is, in fact, a new stanza, till the end of the poem,—the termination of the first linein each of these following couplets being left free. This single rule of the one repeated rhyme being observed, the Ghazel admits otherwise of the greatest possible variety; it may be composed, as is this present, in short trochaics, in longer or shorter iambics, or, in fact, in lines of whatsoever length or arrangement of syllables the poet will. In Germany, the Ghazel has been perfectly domesticated. Rückert and Count Platen are, I believe, considered to have cultivated it with the greatest success.

On this poem I may observe, that it is the first of several in the volume written with an arrangement of rhyme hardly familiar to the English reader, which yet is that of a great part, as I believe, of the lyric poetry of the East, and which may not, perhaps, be unworthy of a place among us. According to the laws of the Ghazel,—for poems in this metre are so entitled,—the two first lines must rhyme, and then this rhyme repeats itself in the second line of each succeeding couplet, which is, in fact, a new stanza, till the end of the poem,—the termination of the first linein each of these following couplets being left free. This single rule of the one repeated rhyme being observed, the Ghazel admits otherwise of the greatest possible variety; it may be composed, as is this present, in short trochaics, in longer or shorter iambics, or, in fact, in lines of whatsoever length or arrangement of syllables the poet will. In Germany, the Ghazel has been perfectly domesticated. Rückert and Count Platen are, I believe, considered to have cultivated it with the greatest success.

P. 14.THE BANISHED KINGS.

See Rükert’s “Brahmanische Erzählungen,” p. 5. I am not aware whether the Parable is of his own constructing, or whether it be, as the name of the volume would intimate, derived from an Indian source.

P. 20.THE SPILT PEARLS.

This story is from the Bustan of Saadi. See Tholuck’s “Blüthensammlung aus der Morgenländischen Mystik,” p. 239. With the moral of this story we may compare the memorable words of St. Bernard, when of God he says, “Ipse retributor, ipse retributio nostra, nec jam aliud quam ipsum expectamus ab ipso.”

P. 24.THE BARMECIDES.

The anecdote on which this poem is founded is related by Sylvestre de Sacy in his “Chrestomathie Arabe,” v. ii. See also D’Herbelot’s “Bibliotheque Orientale,” s. v. Barmekian. For the sake of those who are as ignorant as myself of the Eastern languages I would remark, that “Al Raschid” is a title signifying The Just.

P. 35.THE FESTIVAL.

This story also is to be found in the “Chrestomathie Arabe” (v. ii. p. 3) of Sylvestre de Sacy.

P. 41.THE EASTERN NARCISSUS.

In the attempt made by the Neo-Platonists to put a new life into the old Grecian Mythology, Narcissus falling in love with his own image in the water-brook was made the symbol of man casting himself forth into the world of shows and appearances, and expecting to find the good that would answer to his nature there, but indeed finding nothing but disappointment and death.—The fable is Feridoddin Attar’s, who, born in 1216, perished in the invasion of Dschengischan at the beginning of the next century. The account of the manner in which he was converted to the life of contemplative piety is remarkable. He was originally a rich merchant of spices. A pious dervisch entered his warehouse and craved an alms. Ferid bade him to be gone. The dervisch answered, “That can I do easily, for I possess nothing save my hood; but thou, with so many heavy sacks, how wilt thou contrive to be gone when the hour of thy departure has arrived?” These words made so deep an impression on Ferid, that, from that moment, he gave up his worldly strivings, and dedicated himself to the spiritual life.

P. 55.MOSES AND JETHRO.

This story is one among the many remarkable extracts which Tholuck, in his “Blüthensammlung aus d. Morg. Myst.,” has given (p. 128) from the poems of the chief of the mystical writersof Persia, Dschelaleddin Rumi. In his treating of the subject, however, that indifference to all positive religion, and all fixed forms and outlines of truth, which is the very essence of the Mystic, comes so strongly out, that I have been obliged to write the story anew, seeking to bring out that which is really its valuable part—that truth which a great Christian writer expressed when he said, “Sæpe amor intrat, ubi scientia foris stat.”

P. 64.The good that one man flings aside.

I must acknowledge that I have only assumed from internal evidence, that this story of the Sage gathering herbs is of Eastern origin, owing it myself to Calderon, who introduces it in his famous drama, “La Vida es Sueño.” The second incident of the rebuke which the pilgrim through the desert met with for his unthankfulness and discontent is related by Saadi in his “Rosarium,” and he tells it as having come upon himself.

P. 71.LIFE THROUGH DEATH.

See Tholuck’s “Blüthensammlung &c.” p. 69. There can be no doubt that the poet has a deeper meaning than lies on the surface: the furnace is that of self-denial, which the natural man thinks will be death, but which, if he dares to prove, he finds to be life. Being willing to lose his life, he finds it.In relation to v. 12, it may be needful to observe, that the Mahomedans believe it was in the breath of Christ that the healing virtue lay, by which his miraculous cures were effected. It is a tradition alike Jewish and Mahomedan, that Abraham was flung into the furnace by Nimrod, for refusing to worship his false gods; whereupon the flames, instead of scorching and consuming, were turned for him into a bed of jasmine and roses.

In relation to v. 12, it may be needful to observe, that the Mahomedans believe it was in the breath of Christ that the healing virtue lay, by which his miraculous cures were effected. It is a tradition alike Jewish and Mahomedan, that Abraham was flung into the furnace by Nimrod, for refusing to worship his false gods; whereupon the flames, instead of scorching and consuming, were turned for him into a bed of jasmine and roses.

P. 74.The seed must die, before the corn appears.

Compare John xii. 24, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

P. 75.THE WORLD.

See Von Hammer’s “Gesch. d. schönen Redekunst Persiens,” p. 236.

P. 78.THE MONK AND SINNER.

It is difficult not to be struck with the deep moral resemblance which this story of Saadi’s bears to that related by St. Luke, ch. vii. 36–50. We have here reproduced to us the Pharisee and the woman that was a sinner, and all the deep relations of law and grace; and a reference to the original, or at leastmyoriginal, in Tholuck’s “Blüthensammlung &c.,” p. 251, will prove that I have not sought to throw upon it any colouring which it did not in itself already possess.

P. 81.What, thou askest, is the heaven, &c.

See Tholuck’s “Blüthensammlung &c.,” p. 243.

P. 84.THE SUPPLIANT.

See the same, p. 84. Even in the same spirit Augustine gives the reason why no true prayer can be unheard by God:—“quoniam ad ipsum redit, quod ab ipso processit.”

P. 87.THE PANTHEIST.

The doctrine of evil as not indeed evil, but only an inferior kind of good, to which the Pantheist is of necessity driven, is wrought out with great skill and frequency by the Eastern Mystics—often comes out in their writings in its most offensive shapes. It is curious to notice how completely they have anticipated this view, which continually reappears in the philosophical systems of our own day, and is in them brought forward as some mighty discovery, as a key to all the perplexities of the actual world. See Tholuck’s “Saufismus,” p. 255, seq., and “Blüthensammlung &c.,” pp. 133, 145.

P. 91.THE RIGHTEOUS OF THE WORLD.

See Eisenmenger’s “Entdeckt. Judenthum,” v. ii. p. 362.

P. 96.THE FALCON’S REWARD.

This story, at its root so similar to that of Beth Gellert, is told in the “Calila and Dimna,” and I believe is to be found in many other quarters.

P. 101.THE CONVERSION OF ABRAHAM.

See D’Herbelot’s “Biblioth. Orient.” s. v. Abraham.

P. 103.SONNET.

See Eisenmenger’s “Entdeckt. Judenthum,” v. i. p. 355.

P. 104.THE DEAD DOG.

See Von Hammer’s “Gesch. d. schön. Redek. Persiens,” p. 108.

P. 106.Fair vessel hast thou seen with honey filled.

This poem is also from the “Calila and Dimna.” With the main thought of it we may compare the beautiful lines of Prudentius:—“Haud secus ac si olim per sudum lactea forteLapsa columbarum nubes descendat in arvumRuris frugiferi, laqueos ubi callidus aucepsPrætendit, lentoque illevit vimina visco;Sparsit et insidias siliquis vel farre doloso.Illiciunt alias fallentia grana, gulamqueInnectunt avidam tortæ retinacula setæ,Molle vel implicitas gluten circumligat alas:Ast aliæ, quas nullus amor prælectat edendi,Gressibus innocuis sterili spatiantur in herba,Suspectamque cavent oculos convertere ad escam.Mox ubi jam cœlo revolandum, pars petit æthramLibera sideream, plaudens super aëra pennis;Pars captiva jacet, laceris et saucia plumisPugnat humi, et volucres nequicquam suspicit auras,Sic animas,” &c.

This poem is also from the “Calila and Dimna.” With the main thought of it we may compare the beautiful lines of Prudentius:—

“Haud secus ac si olim per sudum lactea forteLapsa columbarum nubes descendat in arvumRuris frugiferi, laqueos ubi callidus aucepsPrætendit, lentoque illevit vimina visco;Sparsit et insidias siliquis vel farre doloso.Illiciunt alias fallentia grana, gulamqueInnectunt avidam tortæ retinacula setæ,Molle vel implicitas gluten circumligat alas:Ast aliæ, quas nullus amor prælectat edendi,Gressibus innocuis sterili spatiantur in herba,Suspectamque cavent oculos convertere ad escam.Mox ubi jam cœlo revolandum, pars petit æthramLibera sideream, plaudens super aëra pennis;Pars captiva jacet, laceris et saucia plumisPugnat humi, et volucres nequicquam suspicit auras,Sic animas,” &c.

“Haud secus ac si olim per sudum lactea forte

Lapsa columbarum nubes descendat in arvum

Ruris frugiferi, laqueos ubi callidus auceps

Prætendit, lentoque illevit vimina visco;

Sparsit et insidias siliquis vel farre doloso.

Illiciunt alias fallentia grana, gulamque

Innectunt avidam tortæ retinacula setæ,

Molle vel implicitas gluten circumligat alas:

Ast aliæ, quas nullus amor prælectat edendi,

Gressibus innocuis sterili spatiantur in herba,

Suspectamque cavent oculos convertere ad escam.

Mox ubi jam cœlo revolandum, pars petit æthram

Libera sideream, plaudens super aëra pennis;

Pars captiva jacet, laceris et saucia plumis

Pugnat humi, et volucres nequicquam suspicit auras,

Sic animas,” &c.

P. 113.Man, the caged bird that owned an higher nest.

See Von Hammer’s “Gesch. d. schön. Redek. Persiens,” p. 389.

THE STEADFAST PRINCE.

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