Though we have consistently refrained from discussing translations, it is felt that the Stimmen vom Ganges, which is a collection of Indic legends from various sources, especially from the Puranas, cannot be left entirely out of consideration.[230] In many respects these poems have the charm of original work.  The models moreover are used with great freedom.  To cite von Schack’s own words:  “Fuer eigentliche Uebertragungen koennen diese Dichtungen in der Gestalt, wie sie hier vorliegen, nicht gelten, da bei der Bearbeitung bald groessere bald geringere Freiheit gewaltet hat, auch manches Stoerende und Weitschweifige ausgeschieden wurde; doch hielt ich es fuer unstatthaft, am Wesentlichen des Stoffes und der Motive Aenderungen vorzunehmen.  In Gedanken und Ausdruck haben, wenn nicht der jedesmal vorliegende Text, so doch stets Indische Werke zu Vorbildern gedient."[231]

A brief comparison of any one of these poems with the Sanskrit original will show the correctness of this statement.  Let us take, as an illustration, the second, which gives the famous legend of Sakuntala from the Mahabharata (i. 69-74; Bombay ed. i. 92-100).

Schack leaves out unnecessary details and wearisome repetitions.  Thus the elaborate account of the Brahmans whom the king sees on entering the hermitage of Kanva and their different occupations (Mbh. 70, 37-47) is condensed into fourteen lines, p. 36.  Again, in the original, when Sakuntala tells the story of her birth, the speech by which Indra urges Menaka to undertake the temptation of Visvamitra is given at some length (Mbh. 71, 20-26); so also the reply of the timid nymph (ibid. 71, 27-42); the story of the temptation itself is narrated with realistic detail in true Hindu fashion (ibid. 72, 1-9).  All this takes up thirty-three slokas.  Schack devotes to it barely five lines, p. 38; the speeches of Indra and Menaka he omits altogether.  Again, when the king proposes to the fair maid, he enters into a learned disquisition on the eight kinds of marriage, explaining which ones are proper for each caste, which ones are never proper, and so forth; finally he proposes the Gandharva form (Mbh. 73, 6-14).  It is needless to say that in Schack’s poem the king’s proposal is much less didactic and much more direct, pp. 40, 41.

On the other hand, to see how closely the poet sometimes follows his model we need but compare all that follows the words “Kaum war er gegangen,” p. 42, to “Dem sind nimmerdar die Goetter gnaedig,” p. 47, with the Sanskrit original (Mbh. 73, 24-74, 33).

Minor changes in phrases or words, advisable on aesthetic grounds, are of course frequent.  Similes, for instance, appealing too exclusively to Hindu taste, were made more general.  Thus in Sakuntala’s reply to the king, p. 51, the faults of others are likened in size to sand grains, and those of himself to glebes.  In Sanskrit, however, the comparison is to mustard-grains and bilva-fruits respectively.  A few lines further on the maid declares: