PREFACE.
THE aim of the "Echoes from East and West" is to produce on an English gramophone some of the finest records of Indo-European songs. It is to wake up at a grind the "music of the moon" that slept "in the plain eggs" of that "nightingale enveloped in the mist of ages," the primitive Aryan of Mid-Asia, whose natural and adopted offspring are scattered over five continents. It is to bring together the voices of some of the Indic, Persic, Hellenic, Italic, Romance, and Teutonic makers of melodies, so that the only notable nestlings here silent are those that chirped through Celtic and Slavonic tongues. It is also to show that a true song floats above race and age and land and may be heard by all. Thanks to the strenuous devotion of eminent scholars, the Muses of Comparative Philology and Comparative Mythology have in recent years lightened up the path of the seeker of poetry and prosody. I should, therefore, invite some far abler man, some future Aryan Palgrave, some soul ever athirst for Beauty and anhungered for Truth, to roam farther and farther afield through literatures and come back with fresher and fresher songs for real lovers of poetry in all English speaking lands. In the meantime I hope that the public would kindly receive this humble collection of many years, which I have made as representative as possible within the narrow range of my quest. Naturally enough, I have given the greatest prominence to the earlier part as well as the Northern section of English literature, as it is highly interesting to see the beginnings of modern English literature, which is second to no other in the whole history of the world. Again, the selections from other European literatures have been made in proportion to the interest they may excite in us for their direct or indirect bearing on the poetry of this country. Lastly, I have given some prominence to Indic literatures, because of the present intimate connexion between England, which has absorbed the best part of Greek, Italic, Romance and Teutonic literatures, and India, which has preserved for us the earliest monuments of Aryan culture. I may add that I have ended the volume with "Stray Notes of Mine Own," as they show some of my predilections. Of these poems the one that I care for most is the Sonnet on Milton's "Paradise Lost."
As regards the arrangement of the selected pieces, a few words need be said. I have not thought it fit to present them in the order of the languages, which would give the book a formidable appearance and would not make the poems really effective. I have, therefore, given them in their chronological order of composition, which, I trust, would be found to be also their psychological and poetically effective order. This order, I need hardly say, was not the order in which I learnt the languages. A few verses, however, taken from my translation of Kalidasa's "Sakuntala and her Keepsake," have been interspersed through the volume. Again, as regards the method of rendering, I may say that all the pieces down to "To the Muse" exhibit what I call the process of version, that is, rendering the sense of the original in my own manner and in a metrical form something like that of the original; while all the rest show what I call the process of translation, that is, rendering the original in the order of its words and in its exactly equivalent metrical form as far as it is in keeping with the true genius of the English language. In a few cases the process of translation has been more or less that of modernisation. The essential thing in these processes, which I have always tried to keep in view, is to fall into the inspiration of the original poet before attempting a rendering. Next, with regard to the prosody, I may say that most of the poems are in recognised English or Anglicised metrical forms, but there are a few poems written in Hexameters, Elegiacs, Alliterative Verse, Assonant Verse, and Unrimed Verse. In translating Classical Lyrical metres, I have given the same number of syllables and the same pauses as the original with an English disposition of accents, with the exception of "The Calm of Nature" from Alcman and "The Crab and the Snake" from a Greek skolion, where I have tried to replace the quantity of the original by the accent in English, as I have done in the case of the Hexameters and Elegiacs. One piece entitled "Baby and Nurse" has been rendered in hexameters, although the original is in a metre full of short syllables. I have introduced rime in translating Classical Sanskrit Quatrains and Pali Quatrains and Sestets, in order to lay stress on the fact that there is a deep rhythmic pause at the end of the second and fourth quarters of the quatrain or the second, fourth and sixth sections of the sestet, and that the uneven quarters or sections are pitched against each other; but I have not applied this principle in translating Vedic triplets, quatrains, quintuplets and sestets, because there the rhythm and sense seem to me almost confined to each line. Lastly, with regard to foreign names, they are to be pronounced under the English laws of accent, with the exception of a few classical names; and I may add that in accordance with Elizabethan practice, names of Greek gods and goddesses have been given in their more familiar and more easily pronounced Latin forms—only we should not confound Greek and Roman mythology.
It should be remarked that the main features of the book are variety and diversity from the voint of view of language, matter, manner, and metre. Poems have been brought together sometimes for comparison, sometimes for contrast, sometimes for showing evolution of thought, overflow of ideas and sentiments from country to country, and so on. To enhance the interest of the reader, I have introduced a few philosophical poems from the East, and a few devotional poems from both East and West. Wherever the opening or a part of a great poem has been given in these pages, it is implied that some knowledge of the whole will always be found edifying, because of the side-lights thrown on racial characteristics, which are more or less insular, and on human sentiments, which are bound to be universal. In fact, Life in its insular intensity, and in its universal extensity, and—to go a step further—in its eternal protensity, is the highest goal of study in Art. It is this three-sided Life which Homer and Shakespeare saw mostly, but of which a good deal remains a sealed book to us mortals. Do you know of anyone, young or old, of either sex, of any country, or of any age, barring jealous contemporaries, who, being able to read Shakespeare, did not in the main like him? I do not. I say "in the main" advisedly; because what he or she does not like in Shakespeare is to him or her, but not to all, a sealed book.
In conclusion, I have to discharge the most pleasant duty of expressing my gratitude to the various scholars whose works or lectures or personal contact were of great help to me in attacking the original poems. I should mention in particular three famous scholars of Christ's College, Cambridge, the Rev. Prof. W. W. Skeat, Litt.D., Dr. I. Gollancz, Professor, King's College, London, and Mr. A. J. Wyatt, M.A., who all created in me a taste for the earlier part of English literature. I also sat for Old and Middle French at the feet of Mr E. G. W. Braunholtz, M.A., and Mr. W. Rippman M.A.; for Latin at the feet of Mr. E. J. Brooks, M.A., and Mr. S. Bloxsidge, B.A. (Oxon); and for Vedic Sanskrit at the feet of the late Prof. C. Bendall, M.A., and Dr. L. D. Barnett, Professor, University College, London. In my first studies of the French language I received the kind help of the Rev. J. W. Cartmell, M.А., Tutor of Christ's College, and of M. Vital de la Motte, M.A., of Christ's College. My passion for Scottish literature was early bred in me by five Professors, all Scotsmen, under whom I read at Calcutta; there also I learnt Old English from Mr. A. C. Edwards, M.A. and some classics, as well as most of the Eastern languages rendered in these pages. I was encouraged in my renderings of Greek and German by my friend Mr. E. J. Thomas, B.A., of Emmanuel College; and I received the judgment of Mr. J. H. Sleeman, M.A., Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, on some of the Classical pieces, and of the Rev. G. T. Manley, M.A., formerly Fellow of Christ's College, on some of the Indian religious and philosophical poems. I should also record here my best thanks to two Frenchmen, M. Florian Cordon and M. Emmanuel Léon Chouville, and a German Swiss, Herr Jacob Gerster, Cand. Med., who often gave me valuable advice. Speaking generally, I learnt the psychological analysis of art from Mr. Carveth Read, M.А., Lecturer of University College, London. Last, but not least, I should mention Mr. Arthur Symons, critic and poet, whose friendship has been of late a constant source of inspiration to me.
Cambridge.
28th September, 1908.
P.S.—At the suggestion of some friends, among others Mr. G. T. Hales, B.A., and Mr. E. J. Tipping, B.A., a short note has been given at the end of each poem rendered. I hope it will prove interesting to some readers.
Cambridge.
25th November, 1908.