take care! make our skull (lit. the cup of the head) full of
wine."[150]

Some of the poems are versions, more or less free, of Hafid--passages,
e.g. "Die verloren gegangene Schoene" (p. 290, H. 268), "An die Schoene"
(p. 308, H. 160, couplets 2 and 5 being omitted), "Beschwichtigter
Zweifel" (p. 310, H. 430. 6), "Das harte Wort" (p. 350, H. 77. 1 and
2). Sometimes a theme is taken from Hafid and then expanded, as in "Die
Busse" (p. 346), where the first verse is a version of H. 384. 1, the
rest being original.

Of course, reminiscences of Hafid are bound to be frequent. We shall
point out only a few instances. "Nicht solltest du so, O Rose, versaeumen
die Nachtigall" ("Stimme der Sehnsucht," p. 256) is inspired by a verse
like H. 292. 2:

[Arabic]
[Arabic]

"O rose, in thanks for that thou art the queen of beauty, display
no arrogance towards nightingales madly in love."

In "Zum neuen Jahr" (p. 260) the last lines:

Trag der Schoenheit Koran im offenen Angesicht,
Und ihm diene das Lied Hafises zum Kommentar

are a parallel to H. 10. 6:

[Arabic]
[Arabic]

"Thy beautiful face by its grace explained to us a verse of the
_Quran_; for that reason there is nothing in our commentary but
grace and beauty."

The opening lines of "Schmuck der Welt" (p. 260):

Nicht bedarf der Schmink' ein schoenes Angesicht.
So bedarf die Liebste meiner Liebe nicht

are distinctly reminiscent of H. 8. 4:

[Arabic]
[Arabic]

"Of our imperfect love the beauty of the beloved is independent.
What need has a lovely face of lustre and dye and mole and line?"

Like Hafid (H. 358. 11; 518. 7 et passim) Rueckert also boasts of his
supremacy as a singer of love and wine ("Vom Lichte des Weines," p.
273). Finally in "Frag und Antwort" (p. 258) he employs the form of the
dialogue, the lines beginning alternately _Ich sprach_, _Sie sprach_,
just as Hafid does in Ode 136 or 194. The "Vierzeilen" (p. 361), while
they have the _ruba'i_-rhyme, are not versions. Only a few of them have
an Oriental character. Completely unoriental are the "Briefe des
Brahmanen" (p. 359), dealing with literary matters of contemporary
interest.[151]

The Oriental studies which Rueckert continued to pursue with unabated
ardor were to him a fruitful source of poetic inspiration. They
furnished the material for the great mass of narrative, descriptive and
didactic poems