FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:222On these see Paul Horn, Was verdanken Wir Persien, in Nord u. Süd, Heft 282, p. 386 seq.223Ghaselen, Leipz. Recl. Univ. Bibl. No. 371, pp. 96, 99.224Ibid. pp. 49-54. An einen Freund.225See von Schack, Strophen des Omar Chijam, p. 117.226Horn in article cited, p. 389; Emil Brenning, Leopold Schefer, Bremen, 1884, p. 135.227Gedichte, Frauenfeld, 1879, p. 144 (xvi).228Gesammelte Gedichte, Leipz. Reclam. Nos. 551-3, p. 128.229See Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 29.

222On these see Paul Horn, Was verdanken Wir Persien, in Nord u. Süd, Heft 282, p. 386 seq.

223Ghaselen, Leipz. Recl. Univ. Bibl. No. 371, pp. 96, 99.

224Ibid. pp. 49-54. An einen Freund.

225See von Schack, Strophen des Omar Chijam, p. 117.

226Horn in article cited, p. 389; Emil Brenning, Leopold Schefer, Bremen, 1884, p. 135.

227Gedichte, Frauenfeld, 1879, p. 144 (xvi).

228Gesammelte Gedichte, Leipz. Reclam. Nos. 551-3, p. 128.

229See Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 29.

His Fame as Translator of Firdausī—Stimmen vom Ganges—Sakuntala compared with the Original in the Mahābhārata—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. HisHeldensagen 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 theStimmen vom Ganges, which is a collection of Indic legends from various sources, especially from thePurāṇas, cannot be left entirely out of consideration.230In 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: "Für eigentliche Übertragungen können diese Dichtungen in der Gestalt, wie sie hier vorliegen, nicht gelten, da bei der Bearbeitung bald grössere bald geringere Freiheit gewaltet hat, auch manches Störende und Weitschweifige ausgeschieden wurde; doch hielt ich es für unstatthaft, am Wesentlichen des Stoffes und der Motive Änderungen 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 Śakuntalā from theMahābhārata(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 Śakuntalā tells the story of her birth, the speech by which Indra urges Mēnakā to undertake the temptation of Viśvāmitra 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-threeślōkas. Schack devotes to it barely five lines, p. 38; the speeches of Indra and Mēnakā 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 Götter gnädig," 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 Śakuntalā'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 überragt mein Stamm dennWeit den deinen, wisse das, Duschmanta!"

which passage in the original reads:āvayōr antaraṃ paśya mērusarśapōr iva, "behold! the difference between us is like that between a mustard-seed and Mount Mēru." In the same speech of Śakuntalā the Sanskrit introduces a striking simile which Schack omits as too specifically Indic:

mūrkhō hi jalpatāṃ puṃsāṃ śrutvā vācaḥ śubhāśubhāḥaśubhaṃ vākyam ādattē purīṣam iva sūkaraḥprājñas tu jalpatāṃ puṃsāṃ śrutvā vācaḥ śubhāśubhāḥguṇavad vākyam ādattē haṃsaḥ kṣīram ivāṃbhasaḥ(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. InNächte des Orients(vol. i. p. 7 seq.),233like Goethe before him, he undertakes a poetic Hegira to the East:

Entfliehen lasst mich, fliehn aus den GewirrenDes Occidents zum heitern Morgenland!

So he visits the native towns of Firdausī andHāfiḍ 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 Nirvāṇa 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. Theẖājīwho 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 ʻUmar Xayyām. In fact he indulges sometimes in unmistakable reminiscences ofthe quatrains of the famous astronomer-poet, as when he says:

Wie Schattenbilder, die an der Laterne,Wenn sie der Gaukler schiebt, vorübergleiten,So zieht die blöde, willenlose Herde,Die Menschheit mein' ich, über diese Erde. (p. 55.)

This is very much the same thought as in the following quatrain of ʻUmar (Whinf. 310; Bodl. 108):

اين چرخ فلک که ما درو حيرانيمفانوس خيال ازو مثالی دانيمخورشيد چراغ دان و عالم فانوسما چون صوريم کاندر و گردانيم

which stands first in Schack's own translation of the Persian poet and is thus rendered:

Für eine magische Laterne ist diese ganze Welt zu halten,In welcher wir voll Schwindel leben;Die Sonne hängt darin als Lampe; die Bilder aber und GestaltenSind wir, die d'ran vorüberschweben.234

In hisWeihgesänge(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 titleLotosblätter. 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 Hārūt and Mārūt, who were punished for their temptation of the beautiful Zuhra, the Arabic Venus.236Schack has substituted the oldPersian name of Anāhita (mod. Pers.nāhīd) 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:

Wär ich, so wie Firdusi, paradiesisch,Ich bohrte dir die Perlen der KasideUnd schlänge dir das Halsband der Ghasele;Allein wir Deutschen singen kaum hafisisch,Und wenn wir orientalisch sind im Liede,Durchtraben wir die Wüsten als Kamele. (Vol. x. p. 106.)

Even for Bodenstedt's Mirza Schaffy songs he has no great admiration:

Gar viel bedeutet's nicht, mich dünkt!Dem nur, was Rückert längst schon besser machteUnd Platen, bist du keuchend nachgehinkt. (Vol. x. p. 47.)

FOOTNOTES:230Stimmen 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 Harivaṃśa). In the second edition this was omitted and an imitation of the Nalōdaya substituted as an appendix. The sources for each poem are given by the author himself in Nachwort, p. 215, note.231Op. cit. p. 216.232See Lanman, The Milk-drinking Haṅsas of Sanskrit Poetry, JAOS. vol. 19. 2, pp. 151-158. Goose would be a better translation of the wordhaṃsathan swan.233We cite from the edition mentioned on p. vii.234Strophen 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.235Herder, Briefe zur Beförderung der Humanität, 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. 3.236See Hammer, Fundgruben, vol. i. pp. 7, 8.

230Stimmen 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 Harivaṃśa). In the second edition this was omitted and an imitation of the Nalōdaya substituted as an appendix. The sources for each poem are given by the author himself in Nachwort, p. 215, note.

231Op. cit. p. 216.

232See Lanman, The Milk-drinking Haṅsas of Sanskrit Poetry, JAOS. vol. 19. 2, pp. 151-158. Goose would be a better translation of the wordhaṃsathan swan.

233We cite from the edition mentioned on p. vii.

234Strophen 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.

235Herder, Briefe zur Beförderung der Humanität, 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.

236See Hammer, Fundgruben, vol. i. pp. 7, 8.

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 mediæval 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. TheGulistānandBūstānof Saʻdī, some maxims of Bhartṛhari 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 ofHāfiḍ that inspired the composition of Goethe'sDivanand thus started the Oriental movement in Germany.

We have examined the share which Rückert, Platen,Bodenstedt and Schack had in this movement and have touched briefly on the work of some of the minor lights. It will be noticed that the Persian tendency found a far greater number of followers than the Indic. And this is but natural. It was far more easy to sing of wine, woman and roses in the manner ofHāfiḍ, such as most of these poets conceived this manner to be, than to assimilate and reproduce the philosophic and often involved poetry of India. Add to this the charming form and the rich rhyme of Persian poetry and we can readily understand why it won favor. But we can also understand readily enough why most of the so-called Hafizian singing is of very inferior quality. Those men who did the most serious work for the West-Eastern movement in Germany, men like Rückert and Schack, were not one-sided in their studies. It was their earnest intention to offer to their countrymen what was best in the literatures of both India and Persia, and that they have carried out this intention nobly no one who has followed this investigation will be disposed to deny.

It only remains to say a few words on the question of the value of this Oriental movement to German literature. We are not inclined to put too high an estimate on the poetry that arose under its influence. In fact, we do not think that it has produced what may be called really great poetry. It is significant that the fame of most of the poets considered in this investigation does not rest on that part of their work which was inspired by Oriental influence. We cannot possibly agree with the view that would place Goethe'sDivanside by side with the master's best productions. We do not believe that he ever would have become famous through that. Platen'sGhaselenhave neither the merit nor the reputation of his sonnets or his ballads. Even among theGhaselenandÖstliche Rosenof Rückert, the finest poems, such as "Sei mir gegrüsst" and "Du bist die Ruh," both immortalized by the genius of Schubert, are precisely those that are least Oriental, and we think it is safe to say that theLiebesfrühlingexceeds in fame any one of Rückert's Oriental collections, including theWeisheit des Brahmanen. The exception to the rule is Bodenstedt. His reputation rests almost solely on the Mirza Schaffy songs; but it will scarcely be pretended that this is great poetry.

From what has been said it may be inferred that the chief value of the Oriental movement does not consist in its original contributions to German literature, but rather in the reproductions and translations it inspired. For it was through these that the treasures of Eastern thought were made the literary heritage, not of Germany alone, but of Europe. As far as the literature of Germany itself is concerned, this movement was of the greatest significance, in that it introduced the Oriental element and thereby helped powerfully to impart to German letters the spirit of cosmopolitanism for which men like Herder and Goethe had so earnestly striven. The great writers of ancient Greece and Rome had long since been familiar to the German people; Shakespere, Dante and Calderon had likewise won a place by the side of the German classics through the masterly work of the Romanticists; and now the spirit and form of a new literature—light from the East—was brought in by the movement which has been the subject of this investigation and assumed its place as a recognized element in the literature of Germany. The fond dream of aWeltlitteraturthus became a reality, and the German language became the medium of acquaintance with all that is best in the literature of the world. The Oriental movement is the clearest proof of that spirit of universality, which is at once the noblest trait and the proudest boast of German genius.

Transcriber's NotesThere are many spelling and capitalization inconsistencies in the original of this text. These have been retained in this version, except those noted below.Page vi: Changed Behāristān to Bahāristān.Page 2: Added marker for Footnote 2 at the end of the second paragraph.Page 6: Changed fourteeth to fourteenth.Page 7: Changed "ferren India" to "fernen India."Page 44: Changed "Iskandarnāmah" to "Iskandar Nāmah" in Footnote 159.Page 52: Changed "Pratap Sinh" to "Pratap Singh."Changed "d' herb" to "d'herb" where it occurs.Normalized spelling for "Hāfiḍ" throughout the text.

There are many spelling and capitalization inconsistencies in the original of this text. These have been retained in this version, except those noted below.

Page vi: Changed Behāristān to Bahāristān.

Page 2: Added marker for Footnote 2 at the end of the second paragraph.

Page 6: Changed fourteeth to fourteenth.

Page 7: Changed "ferren India" to "fernen India."

Page 44: Changed "Iskandarnāmah" to "Iskandar Nāmah" in Footnote 159.

Page 52: Changed "Pratap Sinh" to "Pratap Singh."

Changed "d' herb" to "d'herb" where it occurs.

Normalized spelling for "Hāfiḍ" throughout the text.

Back to Index Next