With the Arabic sources, the Qurān, the chrestomathies of de Sacy and Kosegarten, and others, we are not here concerned. Among the Persian sources the one most frequently used is the Gulistān, from which are taken, to give but a few instances, "Sadi an den Fürstendiener," p. 57 (Gul. i. distich 3), "Mitgefühl," p. 52 (Gul. i. 10, Maθnavī), "Kein Mensch zu Haus," p. 52 (Gul. vii. 19, dist. 6, Platts, p. 139), "Gewahrter Anstand," p. 55 (Gul. iv. Maθ. 5, Platts, p. 96), as well as many of the proverbs and maxims, pp. 102-108. The poem "Die Kerze und die Flasche," p. 82, is a result of the poet's studies in connection with his translation of the Haft Qulzum, a fragment of Amīr Šāhī[154] being combined with a passage cited from Asadī.[155] "Eine Kriegsregel aus Mirchond," p. 73, is a paraphrase of a maθnavī from Mīrχvānd's Raūḍat-ussafā.[156] In "Gottesdienst," p. 52, the first two lines are from Amīr Xusrau (Red. p. 229); the remaining lines were added by Rückert. The fables given on pp. 87-96 as from Jāmī are taken from the eighth chapter or "garden" of that poet's Bahāristān; they keep rather closely to the originals, only in "Die Rettung des Fuchses" the excessive naturalism of the Persian is toned down.[157] One of these fables, however, "Falke und Nachtigall," p. 89, is not from Jāmī, but from the Maχsan-ul-asrār of Niḍāmī (بلبل با باز حکايت ed. Nathan. Bland, London, 1844, p. 114; translated by Hammer in Red. p. 107).
Some of the poems in this collection are actual translations from Persian literature. Thus "Ein Spruch des Hafis," p. 59, is a fine rendering of qiṭʻah 583 in the form of the original.[158] Then a part of the introduction to Niḍāmī's Iskandar Nāmah is given on p. 65. The translation begins at the fortieth couplet:[159]
کرا زهرهً آنکه از بيم تو
"Who has such boldness that from fear of Thee he open his mouth save in submission to Thee?"
This is well rendered:
Wer hat die Kraft, in deiner Furcht Erbebung,
Vor dir zu denken andres als Ergebung?
As will be noticed, Rückert here has not attempted to reproduce the mutaqārib, as Platen has done in his version of the first eight couplets (see p. 36).
Some of the translations in this collection were not made directly from the Persian, but from the versions of Hammer. Thus "Naturbetrachtung eines persischen Dichters," p. 62, is a free rendering of Hammer's version of the invocation prefixed to Aṭṭār's Mantiq-uṭ ṭair (Red. p. 141 seq.) and Rückert breaks off at the same point as Hammer.[160] So also the extract from the Iyār-i-Dāniṣ̌ of Abū'l Faḍl (p. 68) is a paraphrase of the version in Red. p. 397.
A number of poems deal with legends concerning Rūmī, or with sayings attributed to him. Thus the legend which tells how the poet, when a boy, was transported to heaven in a vision, as told by Aflākī in the Manāqibu'l ʻĀrifīn,[161] forms the subject of a poem, p. 37. A saying of Rūmī concerning music prompted the composition of the poem, p. 54 (on which see Boxberger, op. cit. p. 241), and on p. 62 the great mystic is made to give a short statement of his peculiar Sūfistic doctrine of metempsychosis.[162] In "Alexanders Vermächtnis," p. 61, we have the well-known legend of how the dying hero gives orders to leave one of his hands hanging out of the coffin to show the world that of all his possessions nothing accompanies him to the grave. In Niḍāmī's version, however, the hand is not left empty, but is filled with earth.[163]
Finally there are a few poems dealing with Oriental history, of which we may mention "Hormusan," p. 25, the subject being the same as in Platen's more famous ballad. It may be that both poets drew from the same source (see p. 37).