misery
and finding thorns in the rose-gardens of Persia, and demons, misshapen
gods and monkeys acting the parts of heroes in India, he is glad to
return to the Iliad and Odyssey (cf. also "Zu den oestlichen Rosen," p.
153).

Rueckert was evidently aware of his tendency to overproduction. He offers
an explanation in "Spruchartiges," p. 157:

Mir ist Verse zu machen und kuenstliche Vers' ein Beduerfnis,
Fehlt mir ein eigenes Lied, so uebersetz' ich mir eins.

And again to his own question, Musst du denn immer dichten?, p. 159, he
answers:

Ich denke nie ohne zu dichten,
Und dichte nie ohne zu denken.

Graf von Schack has aptly applied to Rueckert's poems the famous sentence
which a Spaniard pronounced about Lope de Vega, that no poet wrote so
many good plays, but none also so many poor ones.[191]

* * * * *

Whatever defects it may have, Rueckert's Oriental work is nevertheless
indisputably of the greatest importance to German literature. More than
any one else he brought over into it a new spirit and new forms; and it
is due primarily to his unsurpassed technical skill that the German
language is to-day the best medium for an acquaintance, not only with
the literature of the West, but also with that of the East.

FOOTNOTES:

[145] See Beyer, Friedrich Rueckert, Fkft. a. M. 1868, pp. 101, 102.

[146] Vol. v. pp. 200-237.

[147] So Hammer himself thought at the time. See Rob. Boxberger,
Rueckert-Studien, Gotha, 1878, p. 224. Such also was the opinion of the
scholarly von Schack, Strophen des Omar Chijam, Stuttg. 1878, Nachwort,
p. 117, note. A copy of the original _divan_ of Rumi has not been
accessible to me.

[148] Cf. for instance No. 8, in ii. with Red. p. 175, and No. 24 in ii.
p. 235, with Red. p. 188.

[149] Vol. v. ii. 25, p. 236.

[150] Cf. Hafid, Saqi Namah, couplets 77, 78 for the three names
mentioned above. The figure is most familiar to the English reader from
Fitzgerald's version, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Boston, 1899, p. 211,
xxxvii. See also 'Umar Xayyam ed. Whinfield, London, 1883, No. 466.

[151] They were published in Deutscher Musenalmanach, 1838, and do not
belong properly to the collection here discussed.

[152] See essay on this by Robert Boxberger in Rueckert-Studien, pp.
210-278. Also Beyer, Neue Mittheil. vol. i. p. 213; vol. ii. pp. 201-204
for the date of many of these poems.

[153] Also a few of the Vierzeilen-Sprueche,