Poems, Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages/Preface
THE
PREFACE.
THE reader will probably expect, that, before I present him with the following miscellany, I should give some account of the pieces contained in it; and should prove the authenticity of those Eastern originals, from which I profess to have translated them: indeed so many productions, invented in France, have been offered to the publick as genuine translations from the languages of Asia, that I should have wished, for my own sake, to clear my publication from the slightest suspicion of imposture; but there is a circumstance peculiarly hard in the present case; namely, that, were I to produce the originals themselves, it would be impossible to persuade some men, that even they were not forged for the purpose, like the pretended language of Formosa. I shall, however, attempt in this short preface to satisfy the reader's expectations.
The first poem in the collection, called Solima, is not a regular translation from the Arabick language; but most of the figures, sentiments, and descriptions in it, were really taken from the poets of Arabia: for when I was reading some of their verses on benevolence and hospitality, which they justly consider as their most amiable virtues, I selected those passages, that seemed most likely to run into our measure, and connected them in such a manner as to form one continued piece, which I suppose to be written in praise of an Arabian princess, who had built a caravansera with pleasant gardens for the refreshment of travellers and pilgrims; an act of munificence not uncommon in Asia. I shall trouble the reader with only one of the original passages, from which he may form a tolerable judgement of the rest:
Kad alama e`ddhaifo wa`l mojteduno
Idha aghbara ofkon wahabbat shemelan,
Wakhalat an auladiha elmordhiato,
Wa lam tar ainon lemoznin belanan,
Beenca conto `errabîo el moghitho
Leman yâtarica, waconto themalan,
Waconto` nehara behi shemsoho,
Waconto dagiyyi` lleili fihi helalan.
that is;[1] the stranger and the pilgrim well know, when the sky is dark, and the north-wind rages, when the mothers leave their sucking infants, when no moisture can be seen in the clouds, that thou art bountiful to them as the spring, that thou art their chief support, that thou art a sun to them by day, and a moon in the cloudy night.
The hint of the next poem, or The Palace of Fortune, was taken from an Indian tale, translated a few years ago from the Persian by a very ingenious gentleman in the service of the India-company; but I have added several descriptions, and episodes from other Eastern writers, have given a different moral to the whole piece, and have made some other alterations in it, which may be seen by any one, who will take the pains to compare it with the story of Roshana, in the second volume of the tales of Inatulla.
I have taken a still greater liberty with the moral allegory, which, in imitation of the Persian poet Nezami, I have entitled The Seven Fountains, the general subject of it was borrowed from a story in a collection of tales by Elm Arabshab, a native of Damascus, who flourished in the fifteenth century, and wrote several other works in a very polished style, the most celebrated of which is An hiftory of the life of Tamerlane: but I have ingrafted upon the principal allegory an episode from the Arabian tales of[2] a thousand and one nights, a copy of which work in Arabick was procured for me by a learned friend at Aleppo.
The song, which follows, was first printed at the end of a Persian grammar; but, for the satis-faction of those who may hare any doubt of its being genuine, it seemed proper to set down the original of it in Roman characters at the bottom of the page. The ode of Petrarch was added, that the reader might compare the manner of the Asiatick poets with that of the Italians, many of whom have written in the true spirit of the Easterns: some of the Persian songs have a striking resemblance to the sonnets of Petrarch; and even the form of those little amatory poems was, I believe, brought into Europe by the Arabians; one would almost imagine the following lines to be translated from the Persian,
Aura, che quelle chiome bionde e crefpe
Circondi, e movi, e fe' moffa da loro
Soavemente, e fpargi quel dolce oro,
E poi 'l raccogli, e'n bei nodi l'increfpe.
since there is scarce a page in the works of Hafez and Yami, in which the fame Image, of the breeze playing with the tresses of a beautiful girl, is not agreeably and variously expressed.
The elegy on the death of Laura was inserted with the fame view of forming a comparison between the Oriental and the Italian poetry: the description of the fountain of Valechiusa, or Valius Clausa, which was close to Petrarch's. house, was added to the elegy in the year 1769, and was composed on the very spot, which I could not forbear visiting, when I passed by Avignon.
The Turkish Ode on the Spring was selected from many others in the same language, written by Mesibi, a poet of great repute at Constantinople, who lived in the reign of Soliman the Second, or the Lawgiver; it is not unlike the Vigil of Venus, which has been ascribed to Catullus; the measure of it is nearly the fame with that of the Latin poem; and it has, like (hat, a lively burden at the end of every stanza: the works of Mesibi are preserved in the archives of the Royal Society.
It will be needless, I hope, to apologize for the Pastoral, and the poem upon Chefs, which were done as early as at the age of sixteen or seventeen years, and were saved from the fire, in preference to a great many others, because they seemed more correctly versified than the rest.
It must not be supposed, from my zeal for the literature of Asia, that I mean to place it in competition with the beautiful productions of the Greeks and Romans; for I am convinced, that, whatever changes we make in our opinions, we always return return to the writings of the ancients, as to the standard of true taste.
If the novelty of the following poems should recommend them to the favour of the reader, it may, probably, be agreeable to him to know, that there are many others of equal or superior merit, which have never appeared in any language of Europe; and I am persuaded that a writer, acquainted with the originals, might imitate them very happily in his native tongue, and that the publick would not be displeased to see the genuine compositions of Arabia and Persia in an English dress. The heroick poem of Ferdusi might be versified as easily as the Iliad, and I see no reason why the delivery of Persia by Cyrus should not be a subject as interesting to us, as the anger of Achilles, or the wandering of Ulysses. The Odes of Hafez, and of Mesihi, would suit our lyrick measures as well as those ascribed to Anacreon; and the seven Arabick elegies, that were hung up in the temple of Mecca, and of which there are several fine copies at Oxford, would, no doubt, be highly acceptable to the lovers of antiquity, and the admirers of native genius: but when I propose a translation of these Oriental pieces, as a work likely to meet with success, I only mean to invite my readers, who have leisure and industry, to the study of the languages, in which they are written, and am very far from insinuating that I have the remotest design of performing any part of the task myself; for, to say the truth, I should not have differed even the following trifles to see the light, if I were not very desirous of recommending to the learned world a species of literature, which abounds with so many new expressions, new images, and new inventions.
