VON SCHACK.
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. 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 Purāṇas, 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: "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 the Mahābhārata (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-three ślōkas. 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 denn
Weit den deinen, wisse das, Duschmanta!"
which passage in the original reads: āvayōr antaraṃ paśya mēru sarśapōr 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 śubhāśubhāḥ
aśubhaṃ vākyam ādattē purīṣam iva sūkaraḥ
prājñas tu jalpatāṃ puṃsāṃ śrutvā vācaḥ śubhāśubhāḥ
guṇavad 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. In Nächte 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 Firdausī and Hāfiḍ 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. The ẖājī 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 ʻUmar Xayyām. 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, 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 حيرانيم
فانوس خيال ازو مثالی دانيم
خورشيد چراغ دان و عالم فانوس
ما 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 Gestalten
Sind wir, die d'ran vorüberschweben.[234]
In his Weihgesänge (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 Lotosblätter. 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.[236] Schack has substituted the old Persian 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 Kaside
Und 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 machte
Und Platen, bist du keuchend nachgehinkt. (Vol. x. p. 47.)