* * * * *

Of Platen’s translations from Hafid we need not speak here.  But we must call attention to the attempt which he made to translate from Nidami’s Iskandar Namah in the original mutaqarib-metre.  The first eight couplets of the invocation are thus rendered, and in spite of the great difficulty attending the use of this metre in a European language, the rendering must be pronounced fairly successful.  It is also faithful, as a comparison with the original shows.  We cite the first two couplets from the Persian: 

     [Arabic]
     [Arabic]

     “O God, world-sovereignty is Thine!  From us comes service, Godhead
     is Thine.  The Protection of high and low Thou art!  Everything is
     nonexistent; whatever is, Thou art."[142]

Of other Oriental poems, not translations, we notice “Parsenlied,” dating from the year 1819, when Goethe’s Divan appeared, and it is quite possible that the Parsi Nameh of that work suggested to Platen the composition of his poem.[143] His best known ballad, “Harmosan,” written in 1830, has a Persian warrior for its hero.  The source for the poem is probably Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (chap. li.)[144]

FOOTNOTES: 

[132] We might say into European literature.  The only previous attempts, as far as we know, to reproduce this form were made by Jones, who translated a ghazal of Jami (Works, vol. ii. p. 501) into English, and by a certain Tommaso Chabert, who translated several ghazals of Jami into Italian (Fundgruben, vol. i. pp. 16-19).

[133] In Taschenbuch fuer Damen, which was already published in 1820, thus establishing Rueckert’s priority over Platen.  See C. Beyer, Neue Mittheilungen ueber Friedrich Rueckert, Leipz. 1873, p. 14; also letter to Cotta, ibid. pp. 113, 114.

[134] Published in Lyrische Blaetter.

[135] In Vermischte Schriften.

[136] Platens Werke (Cotta), vol. ii.  See p. 7, note, where information is given as to place and date of these poems.

[137] Dedication of Spiegel des Hafis to Otto von Buelow, vol. i. p. 265.

[138] We cite the Ghaselen by the number in vol. ii. of the edition here used.

[139] Goethe protested against this Oriental feature.  See Noten u.  Abh. to his Divan, vol. iv. p. 273 seq.

[140] Heines Saemtliche Werke, ed.  Born (Cotta), vol. vi. pp. 130 seq.  Goethe in his comments on his Saki Nameh (op. cit. p. 307) emphasizes the purely pedagogical side of this relation of saqi and master.

[141] Kasside, dated February 3, 1823, ii. p. 60.

[142] Lith. ed., Shiraz, A.H. 1312.

[143] The Divan appeared August, 1819.  Platen’s poem is dated Oct. 28, 1819.

[144] See Studien zu Platen’s Balladen, Herm.  Stockhausen, Berl. (1898), pp. 50, 51, 53, 54.