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.)
FOOTNOTES:
[230] Stimmen vom Ganges. Eine Sammlung Indischer Sagen, 2 Auflage, Stuttgart, 1877. The first edition appeared in 1857. There the eleventh story was Yadu's Meerfahrt (from Harivaṃśa). In the second edition this was omitted and an imitation of the Nalōdaya substituted as an appendix. The sources for each poem are given by the author himself in Nachwort, p. 215, note.