“So ueberragt mein Stamm denn
    Weit den deinen, wisse das, Duschmanta!”

which passage in the original reads:  avayor antaram pasya meru sarsapor iva, “behold! the difference between us is like that between a mustard-seed and Mount Meru.”  In the same speech of Sakuntala the Sanskrit introduces a striking simile which Schack omits as too specifically Indic: 

murkho hi jalpatam pumsam srutva vacah subhasubhah
asubham vakyam adatte purisam iva sukarah
prajnas tu jalpatam pumsam srutva vacah subhasubhah
gunavad vakyam adatte hamsah ksiram ivambhasah

          
                                                          (Mbh. 74. 90, 91.)

“The fool having heard men’s speeches containing good and evil chooses the evil just as a hog dirt; but the wise man having heard men’s speeches containing good and evil chooses the worthy, just as a swan (separates) milk from water."[232]

We believe that these illustrations will suffice to give an idea of the relation which Schack’s poems bear to the originals.

* * * * *

His fondness for things Oriental finds also frequent expression in his own poems.  In Naechte des Orients (vol. i. p. 7 seq.),[233] like Goethe before him, he undertakes a poetic Hegira to the East: 

    Entfliehen lasst mich, fliehn aus den Gewirren
    Des Occidents zum heitern Morgenland!

So he visits the native towns of Firdausi and Hafid and pays his respect to their memory, and then penetrates also into India, where he hears from the lips of a Buddhist monk an exposition of Nirvana philosophy, which, however, is unacceptable to him (p. 111).  The Oriental scenes that are brought before our mind, both in this poem as well as in “Memnon” (vol. vii. p. 5 seq.), are of course portrayed with poetic feeling as well as scholarly accuracy.  The haji who owns the wonderful elixir,—­which, by the way, is said to come from India (p. 33),—­and who interprets each vision that the poet lives through from the standpoint of the pessimistic sceptic, shows the influence of ’Umar Xayyam.  In fact he indulges sometimes in unmistakable reminiscences of the quatrains of the famous astronomer-poet, as when he says: 

    Wie Schattenbilder, die an der Laterne,
    Wenn sie der Gaukler schiebt, voruebergleiten,
    So zieht die bloede, willenlose Herde,
    Die Menschheit mein’ ich, ueber diese Erde. (p. 55.)

This is very much the same thought as in the following quatrain of ’Umar (Whinf. 310; Bodl. 108): 

[Arabic] [Arabic] [Arabic] [Arabic]

which stands first in Schack’s own translation of the Persian poet and is thus rendered: 

    Fuer eine magische Laterne ist diese ganze Welt zu halten,
      In welcher wir voll Schwindel leben;
    Die Sonne haengt darin als Lampe; die Bilder aber und Gestalten
      Sind wir, die d’ran vorueberschweben.[234]