Zur Gottheit ward die Schoenheit mir
Und mein Gebet wird zum Ghasel.—­

But these Ghaselen do not attempt to be so intensely Persian as to reproduce the objectionable features of Persian poetry.  Thus Leuthold sings: 

Vor allem ein Lebehoch dem Hafis, dem Patriarchen der Zunft!—­
D’rum bringe die liebliche Schenkin das Gold gefuellter Becher
hinein![227]

Evidently the poet sees no necessity for retaining the saqi, but makes the poem more acceptable to Western taste by substituting a “Schenkin” for Platen’s “Schenke.”

The Oriental story was cultivated by J.F.  Castelli.  Many of the subjects of his Orientalische Granaten (Dresden, 1852) had already been used by Rueckert.  Another Oriental storyteller in verse is Ludwig Bowitsch, whose Sindibad (Leipzig, 1860) contains mostly Arabic material.  Friedrich von Sallet has written a poem on Zerduscht[228] which gives the Iranian legend of the attempt made by the sorcerers to burn the newborn child.[229] It would, however, lead us too far were we to mention single poems on Oriental subjects or of Oriental tendency.

* * * * *

Head and shoulders above all these less known poets towers the figure of Count von Schack, who, like Rueckert, combined the poetic gift with the learning of the scholar, and who thus stands out a worthy successor of the German Brahman as a representative of the idea of the Weltlitteratur.  A discussion of his work is a fitting close for this investigation.

FOOTNOTES: 

[222] On these see Paul Horn, Was verdanken Wir Persien, in Nord u.  Sued, Heft 282, p. 386 seq.

[223] Ghaselen, Leipz.  Recl.  Univ.  Bibl.  No. 371, pp. 96, 99.

[224] Ibid. pp. 49-54.  An einen Freund.

[225] See von Schack, Strophen des Omar Chijam, p. 117.

[226] Horn in article cited, p. 389; Emil Brenning, Leopold Schefer, Bremen, 1884, p. 135.

[227] Gedichte, Frauenfeld, 1879, p. 144 (xvi).

[228] Gesammelte Gedichte, Leipz.  Reclam.  Nos. 551-3, p. 128.

[229] See Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 29.

CHAPTER XII.

VON SCHACK.

      His Fame as Translator of Firdausi—­Stimmen vom
      Ganges—­Sakuntala compared with the Original in the
      Mahabharata—­His Oriental Scholarship in his Original
      Poems—­Attitude towards Hafizian Singers.

As an Orientalist, von Schack’s scholarship is amply attested by his numerous and excellent translations from Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit.  His Heldensagen des Firdusi, as is well known, has become a standard work of German literature.  In fact, we may say that his reputation rests more upon his translations than upon his poems.