e
translation begins at the fortieth couplet:[159]

[Arabic]

"Who has such boldness that from fear of Thee he open his mouth
save in submission to Thee?"

This is well rendered:

Wer hat die Kraft, in deiner Furcht Erbebung,
Vor dir zu denken andres als Ergebung?

As will be noticed, Rueckert here has not attempted to reproduce the
_mutaqarib_, as Platen has done in his version of the first eight
couplets (see p. 36).

Some of the translations in this collection were not made directly from
the Persian, but from the versions of Hammer. Thus "Naturbetrachtung
eines persischen Dichters," p. 62, is a free rendering of Hammer's
version of the invocation prefixed to Attar's _Mantiq-ut tair_ (_Red._
p. 141 seq.) and Rueckert breaks off at the same point as Hammer.[160] So
also the extract from the _Iyar-i-Danis_ of Abu'l Fadl (p. 68) is a
paraphrase of the version in _Red._ p. 397.

A number of poems deal with legends concerning Rumi, or with sayings
attributed to him. Thus the legend which tells how the poet, when a boy,
was transported to heaven in a vision, as told by Aflaki in the
_Manaqibu'l 'Arifin_,[161] forms the subject of a poem, p. 37. A saying
of Rumi concerning music prompted the composition of the poem, p. 54 (on
which see Boxberger, op. cit. p. 241), and on p. 62 the great mystic is
made to give a short statement of his peculiar Sufistic doctrine of
metempsychosis.[162] In "Alexanders Vermaechtnis," p. 61, we have the
well-known legend of how the dying hero gives orders to leave one of his
hands hanging out of the coffin to show the world that of all his
possessions nothing accompanies him to the grave. In Nidami's version,
however, the hand is not left empty, but is filled with earth.[163]

Finally there are a few poems dealing with Oriental history, of which we
may mention "Hormusan," p. 25, the subject being the same as in Platen's
more famous ballad. It may be that both poets drew from the same source
(see p. 37).

* * * * *

In the same year (1837) as the _Erbauliches und Beschauliches_ there
appeared the _Morgenlaendische Sagen und Geschichten_ (vol. iv.) in seven
books or divisions. In general, the contents of these divisions may be
described as versified extracts from Oriental history of prevailingly
legendary or anecdotal character. Their arrangement is mainly
chronological. Only the fourth, fifth and seventh books call for
discussion