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]

In his _Weihgesaenge_ (vol. ii. p. 149) Schack sends a greeting to the
Orient; in another one of these songs he sings the praises of India
(ibid. p. 232), and in still another he apostrophizes Zoroaster (ibid.
p. 133). A division of this volume (ii.) bears the title _Lotosblaetter_.
The sight of the scholar's chamber with its Sanskrit manuscripts makes
him dream of India's gorgeous scenery and inspires a poem "Das indische
Gemach" (vol. x. p. 26).

Oriental stories and legends are also offered, though not frequently.
"Mahmud der Gasnevide" (vol. i. p. 299) relates the story of the great
sultan's stern justice.[235] "Anahid" (vol. vii. p. 209) gives the
famous legend of the angels Harut and Marut, who were punished for their
temptation of the beautiful Zuhra, the Arabic Venus.[236] Schack has
substituted the old Persian name of Anahita (mod. Pers. _nahid_) for
the Arabic name, and has otherwise also altered the legend considerably.

Schack never attempted to write original poems in Oriental form. The
Hafizian movement did not excite his enthusiasm, and for the trifling of
the average Hafizian singer he had no use whatever. In a poem by which
he conveys his thanks to the sultan for a distinction which the latter
had conferred on him he says:

Waer ich, so wie Firdusi, paradiesisch,
Ich bohrte dir die Perlen der Kaside
Und schlaenge dir das Halsband der Ghasele;
Allein wir Deutschen singen kaum hafisisch,
Und wenn wir orientalisch sind im Liede,
Durchtraben wir die Wuesten als Kamele. (Vol. x. p. 106.)

Even for Bodenstedt's Mirza Schaffy songs he has no great admiration:

Gar viel bedeutet's nicht, mich duenkt!
Dem nur, was Rueckert laengst schon besser machte
Und Platen, bist du keuchend nachgehinkt. (Vol. x. p. 47.)

FOOTNOTES:

[230] Stimmen vom Ganges. Eine Sammlung Indischer Sagen, 2 Auflage,
Stuttgart, 1877. The first edition appeared in 1857. There the eleventh
story was Yadu's Meerfahrt (from Harivamsa). In the second edition this
was omitted and an imitation of the Nalodaya substituted as an appendix.
The sources for each poem are given by the author himself in Nachwort,
p. 215, note.

[231] Op. cit. p. 216.

[232