and “Ein Bild der Welt” is from Ibn Yamin (Red. p. 236).[216] The longest story of the book is “Dara und Sara,” which gives the legend of the discovery of wine by King Jamsid, told by Mirchvand in his Raudat us-safa.[217] Besides changing the name of the king to Dara, in order to make the poem more romantic, we find that Bodenstedt has made some decided alterations and has considerably amplified the legend.  Thus in his version the motive of the lady’s attempt at suicide is despised love, while in the original it is only a prosaic nervous headache.  In both cases, however, the sequel is the same.

Finally, the sixth book offers very free paraphrases of poems by Rumi, Sa’di, Amir Mu’izzi and Anvari, who, oddly enough, are termed “Vorlaeufer des Mirza Schaffy.”  The source for most of these poems was evidently Hammer’s Geschichte der schoenen Redekuenste Persiens.  To realize with what freedom Bodenstedt has treated his models, it is only necessary to compare some of the poems from Rumi with Hammer’s versions, e.g.  “Glaube und Unglaube” (Red. p. 175), “Der Mensch und die Welt” (ibid. p. 180), “Des Lebens Kreislauf” (ibid. p. 178), “Wach’ auf” (ibid. p. 181).  “Die Pilger,” p. 188, attributed to Jami, is likewise from Rumi (Red. p. 181; cf.  Rueckert, Werke, vol. v. p. 220).  The poems from Sa’di can mostly be traced to the Gulistan; they are so freely rendered that they have little in common with the originals except the thought.  No. 1 is Gul. ii. 18, qit’ah 1, to which the words of Luqman are added; no. 2 is from Gul. iii. 10, couplet (p. 76; K.S. p. 129); no. 3 is Gul. iii. 27, math. (p. 89; K.S., p. 151); no. 4 is Gul. iii. 27, qit’ah (p. 91; K.S., p. 154) and no. 5 is Gul. i. 39, math.  The poem “Heimat und Fremde” is taken from Amir Mu’izzi,[218] the court-poet of Malak Shah, who in turn took it from Anvari.  It is cited in the Haft Qulzum to illustrate a kind of poetic theft.[219] “Unterschied” is from Jami (Red. p. 315, given as from Subhat ul-abrar), “Warum” from Ibn Yamin (Red. p. 235); “Die Sterne” and “Die Zeit” are both from Anvari (Red. pp. 98, 99).

* * * * *

So far, Bodenstedt had taken the material for his Oriental poems from Persia, but now he turned to India and in 1887 appeared Sakuntala, a romantic epic in five cantos.  In the main it follows the story of Kalidasa’s famous drama, but the version in the Mahabharata is also used, and a considerable number of episodes are invented.  Even where the account of the drama is followed, changes of a more or less sweeping nature are frequent.  We cannot say that they strike us as so many improvements on Kalidasa; they certainly often destroy or obliterate characteristic Indic features.  Thus in the drama the failure of the king to recognize Sakuntala is the result of a curse pronounced against the girl by the irascible saint Durvasas, whom she has inadvertently failed to treat with due respect, and the ring is merely a means of breaking the spell.  All this is highly characteristic of Hindu thought.  In Bodenstedt’s poem, however, remembering and forgetting are dependent on a magic quality inherent in the ring itself,—­a trait that is at home in almost any literature.[220]