Sieh mich hier im Staub und setze deine Ferse mir auf’s Haupt,
    Mich, den letzten von den letzten deiner letzten Sklaven, sieh![139]

To the saqi is assigned a part almost as prominent as that which is his in the Persian original.  It was the introduction of this repulsive trait (e.g. 82) that gave to Heine the opportunity for the savage, scathing onslaught on Platen in the well known passage of the Reisebilder.[140]

* * * * *

Otherwise Platen, like Goethe, ignores the mystic side of Hafid, and infuses into his Ghaselen a thoroughly bacchanalian spirit, taking frequent occasion to declaim against hypocrisy, fanaticism and the precepts of the Quran.  The credo of these poems is the opening gazal in Spiegel des Hafis (64), where the line “Wir schwoeren ew’gen Leichtsinn und ew’ge Trunkenheit” may be taken to reflect the sentiment of the revelling Persian poet, who begs the sufi not to forbid wine, since from eternity it has been mingled with men’s dust (H. 61. 4); who claims to have been predestined to the tavern (H. 20. 4); who asks indulgence if he turns aside from the mosque to the wine-house (H. 213. 4); who drinks his wine to the sound of the harp, feeling sure that God will forgive him (H. 292. 5); who is above the reproach of the boasters of austerity (H. 106. 3); and who, finally, asks that the cup be placed in his coffin so that he may drink from it on the day of resurrection (H. 308. 8).  But when Platen flings away the Quran he certainly is not in accord with his Persian model, for, while Hafid takes issue with the expounders of the sacred book, he discreetly refrains from assailing the book itself.

But perhaps the chief significance of these Ghaselen, as well as those of Rueckert, lies in the fact that they introduced a new poetic form into German literature.  It is astonishing to see how completely Platen has mastered this difficult form.  The radif or refrain, so familiar to readers of Hafid, he reproduces with complete success, as may be seen, for instance, in 8, where the words “du liebst mich nicht” are repeated at the end of each couplet, preceded successively by zerrissen, wissen, beflissen, gewissen, vermissen, Narzissen, exactly in the style of such an ode as H. 100.  In those odes called Spiegel des Hafis the name Hafis is even regularly introduced into the last couplet, in accordance with the invariable rule of the Persian gazal that the author’s name must appear in the final couplet.

Besides the gazal Platen has also attempted the ruba’i or quatrain, in which form he wrote twelve poems (Werke, ii. pp. 62-64), and the qasidah.  Of this there is only one specimen, a panegyric (for such in most cases is the Persian qasidah) on Napoleon, and, as may therefore be imagined, of purely Occidental content.[141]