Part 14 (1/2)

VON SCHACK.

His Fame as Translator of Firdausi--Stimmen vom Ganges--Sakuntala compared with the Original in the Mahabharata--His Oriental Scholars.h.i.+p in his Original Poems--Att.i.tude towards Hafizian Singers.

As an Orientalist, von Schack's scholars.h.i.+p 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 _Pura?as_, 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: ”Fur eigentliche ubertragungen konnen diese Dichtungen in der Gestalt, wie sie hier vorliegen, nicht gelten, da bei der Bearbeitung bald grossere bald geringere Freiheit gewaltet hat, auch manches Storende und Weitschweifige ausgeschieden wurde; doch hielt ich es fur unstatthaft, am Wesentlichen des Stoffes und der Motive anderungen 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 ill.u.s.tration, 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 repet.i.tions. 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 fas.h.i.+on (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 Gotter gnadig,” 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 uberragt mein Stamm denn Weit den deinen, wisse das, Duschmanta!”

which pa.s.sage in the original reads: _avayor antara? 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 jalpata? pu?sa? srutva vaca? subhasubha?

asubha? vakyam adatte puri?am iva sukara?

prajnas tu jalpata? pu?sa? srutva vaca? subhasubha?

gu?avad vakyam adatte ha?sa? k?iram iva?bhasa?_ (_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 ill.u.s.trations 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 _Nachte des Orients_ (vol. i. p. 7 seq.),[233] like Goethe before him, he undertakes a poetic Hegira to the East:

Entfliehen la.s.st mich, fliehn aus den Gewirren Des Occidents zum heitern Morgenland!

So he visits the native towns of Firdausi and H_afi? 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 Nirva?a 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 _?aji_ 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, vorubergleiten, So zieht die blode, willenlose Herde, Die Menschheit mein' ich, uber diese Erde. (p. 55.)

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

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

Fur eine magische Laterne ist diese ganze Welt zu halten, In welcher wir voll Schwindel leben; Die Sonne hangt darin als Lampe; die Bilder aber und Gestalten Sind wir, die d'ran voruberschweben.[234]

In his _Weihgesange_ (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.