[123] The translation is by Mr. Philip Hale.
[124] El Kaaba (or, more properly, Al, or Ul Kaaba), the sacred shrine of the Islamites at Mecca, is said by tradition to have been created by God out of cloud and mist at the beginning of the world. Adam gave it a more substantial form, building it of stones and rock. It was rebuilt by Noah after the flood; destroyed in war, and erected again by Ishmael and Abraham. It was built in its present form by Moslem caliphs in the eighth century. Before the days of Mohammed it was the shrine of some six hundred idols, among which were six examples of supreme poetic eloquence. It was to these that Antar's poem was added.
[125] The desert that lies to the east of Damascus.
[126] The gazelle figures with curious persistence in Arabic poetry, especially as a symbol, even as a standard, of feminine grace and beauty.
[127] Translated by Mr. P. H. Goepp.
[128] Without opus number.
[129] This was the group of iconoclastic and restless young composers who, at St. Petersburg, set forth, under the banner of "nationalism," to open new paths for Russian music, and by whom Tschaikowsky was cast into outer darkness as being too "eclectic," too little "national," in his art.
[130] Nicolas Gogol (1809-1852), a prolific and popular Russian novelist. Tschaikowsky compared him with Dickens: "He [Dickens] has the same inimitable and innate humor, and the same masterly power of depicting an entire character in a few strokes. But he has not Gogol's depth."