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: