Arthur F. J. Remy

“ Those men who did the most serious work for the West-Eastern movement in Germany, men like Rückert and Schack, were not one-sided in their studies. It was their earnest intention to offer to their countrymen what was best in the literatures of both India and Persia, and that they have carried out this intention nobly no one who has followed this investigation will be disposed to deny.
It only remains to say a few words on the question of the value of this Oriental movement to German literature. We are not inclined to put too high an estimate on the poetry that arose under its influence. ”

“ It was far more easy to sing of wine, woman and roses in the manner of Hāfiḍ, such as most of these poets conceived this manner to be, than to assimilate and reproduce the philosophic and often involved poetry of India. Add to this the charming form and the rich rhyme of Persian poetry and we can readily understand why it won favor. But we can also understand readily enough why most of the so-called Hafizian singing is of very inferior quality. ”

“ The epoch-making work of the English Orientalists, and above all, of the illustrious Sir William Jones, at the end of the eighteenth century not only laid the foundation of Sanskrit scholarship in Europe, but also gave the first direct impulse to the Oriental movement which in the first half of the nineteenth century manifests itself so strikingly both in English as well as in German literature, especially in the work of the poets. ”

“ The eighteenth century saw the discovery of the Avesta by Anquetil du Perron, and its close found men like Jones, Revizky, de Sacy and Hammer busily engaged in spreading a knowledge of Persian literature in Europe.
India, as far as its literature was concerned, did not fare so well. The struggles of European nations for the mastery of that rich empire did little towards promoting a knowledge of its religion or its language. Nor were the efforts of missionaries very successful. Most of their attention was devoted to the Dravidian idioms of Southern India, not to Sanskrit. ”

“ While the Brahman King Didimus is well versed in Roman and Greek mythology, he never mentions the name of any of his own gods. Of real information concerning India there is almost nothing.
From what we have seen thus far we shall not expect in mediæval literature conscious imitation or reproduction of works from Persian or Sanskrit literature. Whatever influence these literatures exerted in Europe was indirect. If a subject was transmitted from East to West it was as a rule stripped of its Oriental names and characteristics, and even its Oriental origin was often forgotten. ”

“ The Oriental movement which manifested itself so strikingly in German literature during the nineteenth century is familiar to every student of that literature. Although the general nature of this movement is pretty clearly understood, no systematic investigation of it, so far as I know, has ever been undertaken. In the following pages an attempt is made to trace the influence which the Indo-Iranian East—the Semitic part is not considered—exerted on German poetry. The work does not claim to be exhaustive in the sense that it gives a list of all the poets that ever came under that influence. ”

“ The great interest which the East aroused in Europe, especially after the period of the first crusades, is shown by the great number of poems which have their scene of action in Oriental lands, especially in India or Persia, or which introduce persons and things from those countries. To indulge this fondness for Oriental scenery poets do not hesitate to violate historical truth. ”

“ For even if we ignore the mystical interpretation which Oriental commentators give to the wine of Hāfiḍ, we cannot possibly ignore the fact that the love of which he sings is never the ideal love for woman, but mostly the love for a handsome boy.113
With the Divan Goethe inaugurated the Oriental movement in German poetry, which Rückert, Platen and Bodenstedt carried to its culmination. ”

“ In all this folkbook-literature India is a mere name. Thus in the oldest Faust-book of 1587 the sorcerer makes a journey in the air through England, Spain, France, Sweden, Poland, Denmark, India, Africa and Persia, and finally comes to Morenland.65
Of all the prose-writings, however, the novel, which began to flourish luxuriously in the seventeenth century, showed the most marked tendency to make use of Eastern scenery and episodes, and incidentally to exhibit the author's erudition on everything Oriental. ”

“ He is not only a devotee to the mystic poetry of Rūmī and the joyous strain of Hāfiḍ, but he is above all the German Brahman, who by masterly translations and imitations made the treasures of Sanskrit poetry a part of the literary wealth of his own country. To his productivity as poet and translator the long list of his works bears conclusive testimony. In this investigation, however, we shall confine ourselves to those of his original poems which are Oriental in origin or subject-matter. A discussion of the numerous translations cannot be undertaken in the limited space at our disposal. ”

“ Becomes Interested in India through Schlegel—Influence of India's Literature on his Poetry—Interest in the Persian Poets—Persian Influence on Heine—His Attitude toward the Oriental Movement.
"Was das Sanskrit-Studium selbst betrifft, so wird über den Nutzen desselben die Zeit entscheiden. Portugiesen, Holländer und Engländer haben lange Zeit jahraus, jahrein auf ihren grossen Schiffen die Schätze Indiens nach Hause geschleppt; wir Deutsche hatten immer das Zusehen. Aber die geistigen Schätze Indiens sollen uns nicht entgehen. ”

“ We do not believe that he ever would have become famous through that. Platen's Ghaselen have neither the merit nor the reputation of his sonnets or his ballads. Even among the Ghaselen and Östliche Rosen of Rückert, the finest poems, such as "Sei mir gegrüsst" and "Du bist die Ruh," both immortalized by the genius of Schubert, are precisely those that are least Oriental, and we think it is safe to say that the Liebesfrühling exceeds in fame any one of Rückert's Oriental collections, including the Weisheit des Brahmanen. The exception to the rule is Bodenstedt. ”

“ So far, Bodenstedt had taken the material for his Oriental poems from Persia, but now he turned to India and in 1887 appeared Sakuntala, a romantic epic in five cantos. In the main it follows the story of Kālidāsa's famous drama, but the version [70] in the Mahābharāta is also used, and a considerable number of episodes are invented. Even where the account of the drama is followed, changes of a more or less sweeping nature are frequent. We cannot say that they strike us as so many improvements on Kālidāsa; they certainly often destroy or obliterate characteristic Indic features. ”

“ A single verse would often furnish a theme for a poem. Sometimes this poem would be a translation, e.g. "Eine Stelle suchte der Liebe Schmerz," p. 54 (H. 356. 8) ; but more often it was a very free paraphrase, e.g. the motto prefixed to Buch Hafis, a variation of the motto to Hammer's [25] version (H. 222. 9) . As an example of how a single verse is developed into an original poem we may cite "Über meines Liebchens Äugeln," p. 55, where the first stanza is a version of H. 221. 1, all the others being free invention. Other Persian poets besides Hāfiḍ also furnished material. ”

“ Most valuable information on Hindu religion was given by the Dutch preacher Abraham Roger in his well known book De Open-Deure tot het Verborgen Heydendom, [12] published at Leyden in 1651, two years after the author's death. This book also gave to the West the first specimen of Sanskrit literature in the shape of a Dutch version of two hundred maxims of Bhartṛhari, not a direct translation from the Sanskrit, but based on oral communication imparted by a learned Brahman Padmanaba.59 As a rule the rendering is very faithful, sometimes even literal. ”

“ For the selections from Saʻdī the distich which had been used for the versions from the Greek anthology is the favorite form. Rhyme, which in Persian poetry is an indispensable requisite, is never employed.
The moralizing tendency which characterizes all of Herder's work, and which grew stronger as he advanced in years, [18] rendered him indifferent to the purely artistic side of poetry. He makes no effort in his versions to bring out what is characteristically Oriental in the original; on the contrary, he often destroys it. ”

“ His Oriental Studies—Introduces the Ghasele—Östliche Rosen; Imitations of Hāfiḍ—Erbauliches und Beschauliches—Morgenländische Sagen und Geschichten—Brahmanische Erzählungen—Die Weisheit des Brahmanen—Other Oriental Poems.
When speaking of the introduction of the γazal-form into German literature mention was made of the name of the man who is unquestionably the central figure in the great Oriental movement which is occupying our attention. Combining the genius of the poet with the learning of the scholar, Rückert was preeminently fitted to be the literary mediator between the East and the West. ”

“ In Germany this movement came just at the time when the idea of a universal literature had taken hold of the minds of the leading literary men, and so it was very natural that the pioneer and prophet of this great idea should also be the first to introduce into German poetry the new west-östliche Richtung. ”

“ What we have given suffices to characterize Herder as a translator or adapter of Oriental poetry. His Eastern studies have scarcely exerted any influence on his original poems beyond inspiring some fervid lines in praise of India and its dramatic art as exhibited in Śakuntalā,84 which had just then [19] (1791) been translated by Forster into German from the English version of Sir William Jones. ”

“ We cite the first two couplets [37] from the Persian:
خدايا جهان پادشاهی تراست
زماخدمت آيدخدايی تراست
"O God, world-sovereignty is Thine! From us comes service, Godhead is Thine. The Protection of high and low Thou art! Everything is nonexistent; whatever is, Thou art."142
Of other Oriental poems, not translations, we notice "Parsenlied," dating from the year 1819, when Goethe's Divan appeared, and it is quite possible that the Parsi Nameh of that work suggested to Platen the composition of his poem.143 His best known ballad, "Harmosan," written in 1830, has a Persian warrior for its hero. ”

“ In the eagerness to be genuinely Persian, the poet was not content, however, with imitating only what was striking or beautiful; he introduces even some features which, though very prominent in Eastern poetry, will never become congenial to the West. Thus the utter abjectness of the Oriental lover, who puts his face in the path of his beloved and invites her (or him) to scatter dust on his head (H. 148. 3) , is presented to us with all possible extravagance in these lines of 87 ”

“ The history of the composition of the Divan is too well known to require repetition. It is given with great detail in the editions prepared by von Loeper and Düntzer.100 Suffice it to say that the direct impulse to the composition of the work was the appearance, in 1812, of the first complete version of Persia's greatest lyric poet Hāfiḍ, by the famous Viennese Orientalist von Hammer. ”

“ Both kinds are mentioned in Śakuntalā (Act. V. Sc. 4, ed. Kale, Bombay, 1898, p. 141) : kumudānyēva śaśāṅkaḥ savitā bhōdhayati paṅkajānyēva "the moon wakes only the night lotuses, the sun only the day lotuses."193 It is the former kind, the nymphaea esculenta, of which Heine sings, and his conception of the moon as its lover is distinctively Indic and constantly recurring in Sanskrit literature. Thus at the beginning of the first book of the Hitōpadēśa the moon is called the lordly bridegroom of the lotuses.194
The splendor of an Indic landscape haunts the imagination of the poet. ”

“ In one case a poem contains a Persian proverb. Mirza Schaffy criticises the opinions of the Shāh's viziers in the words: "Ich höre das Geklapper einer Mühle, doch sehe ich kein Mehl" (i, 85) , a literal rendering of
آواز آسيا می شنوم وآرد نمی بينم
Of course the mullās and hypocrites in general are roundly [66] scored, especially in chapter 27, where the sage, angered by the reproaches which the mustahīd has made to him for his bad conduct and irreligious poetry, gives vent to his sentiments of disgust in a number of poems (vol. ii. p. 137 seq.) . ”

“ Vom Kyros bis zum Rhein geworden—
are no empty boast; they simply express a fact.
None of Bodenstedt's later poetic publications ever attained the success of the Mirza Schaffy songs, and, it may be added, none of them equalled those songs in merit. In 1874 the author resolved once more to try the magic of that name and so he launched forth a collection called Aus dem Nachlasse Mirza Schaffy's, and to emphasize the Persian character of these poems the Persian translation of the title, از اشرار بازماندهً ميرزا شفيع, appeared on the title-page. ”

“ He has no love for it; it was utterly incompatible with his own habit of clear thinking. Speaking of Rūmī, the prince of mystics, he doubts if this poet could give a clear account of his own doctrine;110 the grades by which, according to Sūfī-doctrine, man rises to ultimate union with the Godhead he calls follies.111 Therefore to him Hāfiḍ was the singer of real love, real roses and real wine, and this conception of the great lyric poet was also adopted by all the later Hafizian singers.112 Unfortunately it cannot be said that it is quite correct. ”

“ The credo of these poems is the opening γazal in Spiegel des Hafis (64) , where the line "Wir schwören ew'gen Leichtsinn und ew'ge Trunkenheit" may be taken to reflect the sentiment of the revelling Persian poet, who begs the sūfī not to forbid wine, since from [36] eternity it has been mingled with men's dust (H. 61. 4) ; who claims to have been predestined to the tavern (H. 20. 4) ; who asks indulgence if he turns aside from the mosque to the wine-house (H. 213. 4) ; who drinks his wine to the sound of the harp, feeling sure that God will forgive him (H. 292. 5) ”

“ 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 Hārūt and Mārūt, who were punished for their temptation of the beautiful Zuhra, the Arabic Venus.236 Schack has substituted the old [78] Persian name of Anāhita (mod. Pers. nāhīd) for the Arabic name, and has otherwise also altered the legend considerably.
Schack never attempted to write original poems in Oriental form. ”

“ In the prose writings of this period Oriental influence is much more discernible. In the literature dealing with magic Zoroaster always played a prominent part. The invention of the Cabala was commonly ascribed to him.62 European writers on the black art, as for instance Bodinus, whose De Magorum Dæmonomania was translated by Fischart (Strassburg, 1591) , repeat about Zoroaster all the fables found in classical or patristic writers. So the Iranian sage figures prominently also in the Faust-legend. ”

“ Only twice does he attempt anything like an imitation of the γazal, but in neither case does he satisfy the technical rules of this poetic form.109
[27] From all this we see that Goethe in the Divan preserves his poetic independence. He remains a citizen of the West, though he chooses to dwell for a time in the East. As a rule he takes from there only what he finds congenial to his own nature. So we can understand his attitude towards mysticism. ”