Targum. / Or / Metrical Translations / From Thirty Languages / and / Dialects. / By / George Borrow. / “The raven has ascended to the nest of the nightingale.” / Persian Poem. / St. Petersburg. / Printed by Schulz and Beneze. / 1835.
Collation:—Demy octavo, printed in half-sheets, pp. viii + 106; consisting of: Title-page, as above (with
Issued in plain paper wrappers of a bright green colour, lined with white, and without either lettering or label. The leaves measure 8 11/16 × 5½ inches.
Borrow was happy in the title he selected for his book. Targum, as Mr. Gosse has pointed out, is a Chaldee word meaning an interpretation. The word is said to be the root of ‘dragoman.’
A reduced facsimile of the Title-page is given herewith.
“Just before completing this great work, the Manchu New Testament, Mr. Borrow published a small volume in the English language, entitled Targum, or Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects. The exquisite delicacy with which he has caught and rendered the beauties of his well-chosen originals, is a proof of his learning and genius. The work is a pearl in literature, and, like pearls, it derives value from its scarcity, for the whole edition was limited to about a hundred copies.”—[John P. Hasfeld, in The Athenæum, March 5th, 1836.]
“Some days ago I was at Kirtof’s bookshop on the Gaternaya Ulitza. I wanted to buy a Bible in Spain to send to Simbirsk (on the Volga), where they torment me for it every post-day. The stock was all sold out in a few days after its arrival last autumn. The bookseller asked me if I knew a book by Borrow called Targum, which was understood to have been written by him and printed at St. Petersburg, but he had never been able to light upon it; and the surprising thing was that the trade abroad and even in England did him the honour to order it. I consoled him by saying that he could hardly hope to see a copy in his shop or to get a peep at it. ‘I have a copy,’ continued I, ‘but if you will offer me a thousand roubles for the bare reading of it I cannot do you the favour.’ The man opened his eyes in astonishment. ‘It must be a wonderful book,’ said he. ‘Yes, in that you are right, my good friend,’ I replied.”—[John P. Hasfeld.]
“After he became famous the Russian Government was desirous of procuring a copy of this rare book, Targum, for the Imperial Library, and sent an Envoy to England for the purpose. But the Envoy was refused what he sought, and told that as the book was not worth notice when the author’s name was obscure and they had the opportunity of obtaining it themselves, they should not have it now.”—[A. Egmont Hake, in The Athenæum, August 13th, 1881.]
|
| page
|
| Ode to God. [Reign’d the Universe’s
Master ere were earthly things begun]
Borrow reprinted this Ode in The Bible in Spain,
1843, Vol. iii, p. 333.
| 1
|
| Prayer. [O Thou who dost
know what the heart fain would hide]
| 2
|
| Death. [Grim Death in his shroud swatheth mortals
each hour]
| 3
|
| Stanzas. On a Fountain. [In the fount fell
my tears, like rain]
| 4
|
| Stanzas. The Pursued. [How wretched roams
the weary wight]
| 4
|
| Odes. From the Persian:
|
|
| 1. [Boy, hand my friends the cup,
’tis time of roses now]
| 5
|
| 2. [If shedding lovers’ blood thou
deem’st a matter slight]
| 5
|
| 3. [O thou, whose equal mind knows no
vexation]
| 6
|
| Stanzas. From the Turkish of Fezouli. [O
Fezouli, the hour is near]
| 7
|
| Description of Paradise. [Eight Gennets there
be, as some relate]
| 8
|
| O Lord! I nothing crave but Thee. [O
Thou, from whom all love doth flow]
| 11
|
| Mystical Poem. Relating to the worship of the Great
Foutsa or Buddh. [Should I Foutsa’s force and
glory]
| 13
|
| Moral Metaphors:
|
|
| 1. [From out the South the genial breezes
sigh]
| 19
|
| 2. [Survey, survey Gi Shoi’s
murmuring flood!]
| 20
|
| The Mountain-Chase. [Autumn has fled and winter
left our bounds]
| 21
|
| The Glory of the Cossacks. [Quiet Don!]
| 24
|
| The Black Shawl. [On the shawl, the black
shawl with distraction I gaze]
| 27
|
| Song. From the Russian of Pushkin. [Hoary
man, hateful man!]
| 29
|
| The Cossack. An ancient Ballad. [O’er
the field the snow is flying]
| 30
|
| The Three Sons of Budrys. [With his three mighty
sons, tall as Ledwin’s were once]
| 32
|
| The Banning of the Pest.
[Hie away, thou horrid monster!]
| 35
|
| Woinomoinen. [Then the ancient
Woinomoinen]
| 37
|
| The Words of Beowulf, Son of Egtheof. [Every one
beneath the heaven]
| 39
|
| The Lay of Biarke. [The day in East is
glowing]
The title of this Ballad as it appears in the original MS. is
The Biarkemal.
| 40
|
| The Hail-storm. [For victory as we
bounded]
Previously printed (but with very considerable variations in
the text, the first line reading “When from our ships we
bounded”) in Romantic Ballads, 1826, pp.
136–138. A final version of the Ballad, written about
1854, was printed in Young Swaigder or The Force of Runes and
Other Ballads, 1913, pp. 14–15.
| 42
|
| The King and Crown. [The King who well
crown’d does govern the land]
| 44
|
| Ode To a Mountain Torrent. [O stripling immortal
thou forth dost career]
Previously printed (but with an entirely different text, the
first line reading “How lovely art thou in thy tresses
of foam”) in The Monthly Magazine, Vol. lvi.,
1823, p. 244.
Also printed in Romantic Ballads, 1826, pp.
164–166.
The first stanza of the Ode as printed in Targum
does not figure in the version given in Romantic Ballads,
whilst the third stanza of the Romantic Ballads version is
not to be found in Targum.
| 45
|
| Chloe. [O we have a sister on earthly
dominions!]
Previously printed in The Monthly Magazine, Vol. lvi,
1823, p. 437.
| 47
|
| National Song. From the Danish of Evald.
[King Christian stood beside the mast]
Previously printed (under the title Sea Song; from
the Danish of Evald) in The Monthly Magazine,
December, 1823, p. 437.
Also printed in Romantic Ballads, 1826, pp.
146–148; and again in The Foreign Quarterly Review,
Vol. vi, June, 1830, p. 70.
The four versions of this Song, as printed in
The Monthly Magazine, in Romantic Ballads, in
The Foreign Quarterly Review, and in Targum, are
utterly different, the opening line being the only one which has
approximately the same reading in all.
| 49
|
| Sir Sinclair. [Sir Sinclair sail’d from the
Scottish ground]
Previously printed in The Foreign Quarterly Review,
Vol. vi, June, 1830, p. 73.
| 51
|
| Hvidfeld. [Our native land has ever
teem’d]
| 56
|
| Birting. A Fragment. [It was late at
evening tide]
This “Fragment” consists of fifteen stanzas from
the Ballad The Giant of Berne and Orm Ungerswayne, which
was printed complete, for Private Circulation, in 1913.
[See post, No. 40.]
| 59
|
| Ingeborg’s Lamentation. [Autumn winds
howl]
| 62
|
| The Delights of Finn Mac Coul. [Finn Mac Coul
’mongst his joys did number]
| 65
|
| Carolan’s Lament. [The arts of Greece,
Rome and of Eirin’s fair earth]
| 67
|
| To Icolmcill. [On Icolmcill may blessings
pour]
| 68
|
| The Dying Bard. [O for to hear the hunter’s
tread]
In the original Manuscript of this Poem the title reads The
Wish of the Bard; the text also differs considerably from
that which appears in Targum.
| 70
|
| The Prophecy of Taliesin. [Within my mind]
| 73
|
The History of Taliesin. [The head Bard’s
place I hold]
The original Manuscript of The History of Taliesin
possesses many points of interest. In the first place, in
addition to sundry variations of text, it enables us to fill up
the words in the last line of stanza 3, and the fourth line of
stanza 7, which in the pages of Targum are replaced by
asterisks. The full lines read:
Where died the Almighty’s Son,
and
Have seen the Trinity.
In the second place the Manuscript contains a stanza,
following upon the first, which does not occur in the printed
text. This stanza reads as follows:
I with my Lord and God
On the highest places trod,
When Lucifer down fell
With his army into hell.
I know each little star
Which twinkles near and far;
And I know the Milky Way
Where I tarried many a day.
A reduced facsimile of the third page of this Manuscript will
be found herewith, facing page 54.
| 74
|
| Epigram. On a Miser who had built a Stately
Mansion. [Of every pleasure is thy mansion void]
| 77
|
| The Invitation. [Parry, of all my friends
the best]
| 78
|
| The Rising of Achilles. [Straightway Achilles
arose, the belov’d of Jove, round his
shoulders]
| 82
|
| The Meeting of Odysses and Achilles.
[Tow’rds me came the Shade of Peleidean
Achilles]
| 85
|
| Hymn To Thetis and Neoptolemus. [Of Thetis I sing
with her locks of gold-shine]
| 90
|
| The Grave of Demos. [Thus old Demos spoke,
as sinking sought the sun the western wave]
| 91
|
| The Sorceries of Canidia. [Father of Gods,
who rul’st the sky]
| 92
|
| The French Cavalier. [The French cavalier shall
have my praise]
| 97
|
| Address To Sleep. [Sweet death of sense,
oblivion of ill]
| 98
|
| The Moormen’s March From Granada.
[Reduan, I but lately heard]
| 101
|
| The Forsaken. [Up I rose, O mother,
early]
| 103
|
| Stanzas. From the Portuguese. [A fool is he
who in the lap]
| 104
|
| My Eighteenth Year. [Where is my eighteenth
year? far back]
| 105
|
| Song. From the Rommany. [The strength of
the ox]
Another version of this Song, bearing the title
“Our Heart is heavy, Brother,” is
printed in Marsk Stig’s Daughters and other Songs and
Ballads, 1913, pp. 17–18.
| 106
|
Note.—Each poem to which no reference is attached, appeared for the first time in this volume.
