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ones, are the genuine expression of men deeply moved by a religious crisis in some country in contact with ancient India. What we now call Afghanistan may have been pretty nearly the scene, though some think it more likely to have been further West.
To say a single word on a subordinate but by no means unimportant item. Some attempt at a metrical version is needed to give an idea of the original rhythm hf the pieces, but of course only an approximate idea, none other can be obtained.
I have certainly toned up the strings, and used both addition and omission, as is universal in such reproductions. It is impossible, or unprofitable, to represent metrical matter in a tongue foreign to its original without this. And without some attempt at the representation of the metrial matter we lose even more than aesthetic effect: some reproduction of the rhythm is needed to express the emotional sentiment as well; for this is, as always, dependent to some extent upon the melody of the verse; and even the moral tone is sometimes aided by it. But my chief motive is facility.
I find in my own case that I can get a bird’s eye view of a subject most rapidly and easily from a metrical version; and I suppose that the same may be the case with others; only (let me emphatically repeat it), I disavow all responsibility for the literal terms of the metrical version, except when read together with the word-for-word.
Indian Rishis once lived before their descendants migrated, and that the finest metre in the Gâthas is practically the same as the Indian trishtup (Or rather that the Indian trishtup is certainly the mere repro- duction of immensely older Iranian metres used when Indians and Iranians were one people, or more properly speaking, before any Indians existed)?
Oxford. Feb. 1900.
