Chapter 3 HERDER.

Herder's Interest in the Orient-Fourth Collection of his Zerstreute Bl?tter-His Didactic Tendency And Predilection For Sa?dī.

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. 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-?stliche Richtung.

Herder's theological studies turned his attention to the East at an early age. As is well known, he always had a fervid admiration for the Hebrew poets, but we have evidence to show, that, even before the year 1771, when Jones' Traité sur la poésie orientale appeared, he had widened the sphere of his Oriental studies and had become interested in Sa?dī.79 Rhymed paraphrases made by him of some stories from the Gulistān date from the period 1761-1764,80 and, as occasional references prove, Sa?dī continued to hold his attention until the appearance, in 1792, of the fourth Collection of the Zerstreute Bl?tter, which contains the bulk of Herder's translation from Persian and Sanskrit literature, and which therefore will have to occupy our attention.81

Of this collection the following are of interest to us: 1°. Four books of translations, more or less free, of maxims from the Gulistān, entitled Blumen aus morgenl?ndischen Dichtern gesammlet. 2°. Translations from the Sanskrit consisting of maxims from the Hitōpadē?a and from Bhart?hari and passages from the Bhagavadgītā under the name of Gedanken einiger Bramanen. 3°. A number of versions from Persian, Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic poets given in the Suphan edition as Vermischte Stücke.

The first three books of the Blumen consist entirely of maxims from the Gulistān, the versions of Gentius, or sometimes of Olearius, being the basis, while the fourth book contains also poems from Rūmī, Hāfi? and others (some not Persian), taken mostly from Jones' well known Poeseos.82 For the Gedanken our poet made use of Wilkins' translation of the Hitōpadē?a (1787) and of the Bhagavadgītā (1785), together with the German version of Bhart?hari by Arnold from Roger's Dutch rendering.

As Herder did not know either Sanskrit or Persian, his versions are translations of translations, and it is not surprising if the sense of the original is sometimes very much altered, especially when we consider that the translations on which he depended were not always accurate.83 In most cases, however, the sense is fairly well preserved, sometimes even with admirable fidelity, as in "Lob der Gottheit" (Bl. i. 1), which is a version of passages from the introduction to the Gulistān. No attention whatever is paid to the form of the originals. For the selections from Sa?dī 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.

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The moralizing tendency which characterizes all of Herder's work, and which grew stronger as he advanced in years, 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. Thus his "Blume des Paradieses" (Bl. iv. 7 = H. 548) is addressed to a girl instead of a boy. The fourth couplet is accordingly altered to suit the sense, while the last couplet, which according to the law governing the construction of the Persian γazal contained the name of the poet, is omitted. So also in "Der heilige Wahnsinn" (Verm. 6 = Gul. v. 18, ed. Platts, p. 114) the characteristic Persian phrase

?? ?????? ??? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ?????? ????

"It is necessary to survey Laīlā's beauty from the window of Majnūn's eye"

appears simply as "O ... sieh mit meinen Augen an."

This exclusive interest in the purely didactic side induced Herder also to remove the maxims from the stories which in the Gulistān or Hitōpadē?a served as their setting. So they appear simply as general sententious literature, whereas in the originals they are as a rule introduced solely to illustrate or to emphasize some particular point of the story. Then again a story may be considerably shortened, as in "Die Lüge" (Bl. ii. 28 = Gul. i. 1), "Der heilige Wahnsinn" (see above). To atone for such abridgment new lines embodying in most cases a general moral reflection are frequently added. Thus both the pieces just cited have such additions. In "Verschiedener Umgang" (Ged. 3 = Bhart. Nīti?. 67; B?htl. 6781) the first three lines are evidently inspired by the last line of the Sanskrit proverb: prāyē?ā 'dhamamadhyamōttamagu?a? sa?sargatō jāyatē "in general the lowest, the middle and the highest quality arise from association," but they are in no sense a translation.

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 ?akuntalā,84 which had just then (1791) been translated by Forster into German from the English version of Sir William Jones. Unlike his illustrious contemporary Goethe he received from the East no impulse that stimulated him to production. His one-sided preference for the purely didactic element rendered him indifferent to the lyric beauty of Hāfi? and caused him to proclaim Sa?dī as the model most worthy of imitation.85 Yet it was Hāfi?, the prince of Persian lyric poets, the singer of wine and roses, who fired the soul of Germany's greatest poet and inspired him to write the Divan, and thus Hāfi? became the dominating influence and the guiding star of the west-?stliche Richtung in German poetry.

FOOTNOTES:

79 See the edition by Meyer (KDNL. vol. 74) i. 1. pp. 164, 165.

80 Given by Redlich in the edition by Suphan, vol. 26, p. 435 seq.

81 We may state here that the work in question has been thoroughly commented on by such scholars as Düntzer and Redlich, and their comments may be found in the editions of Suphan and Meyer. The same has been done for Goethe's Divan by Düntzer and Loeper. The former's notes are in his Goethe-edition in the Kürschner-series, the latter's in the edition of Hempel. In this investigation, therefore, the chapters on Herder and Goethe are somewhat briefer than they otherwise would be, as further details as to sources, etc., are easily accessible in the editions just mentioned. In all cases, however, the Sanskrit or Persian originals of the passages cited have been examined.

82 Poeseos Asiaticae commentariorum libri vi, publ. at London, 1774. Reprinted by Eichborn at Leipzig, 1777.

83 Compare, for instance. Hit. couplet 43 = B?htl. 3121 with the rendering of Wilkins in Fables and Proverbs from the Sanskrit, London, 1888 (Morley's Univ. Lib.), pp. 41, 42. And then compare with Herder's Zwecke des Lebens (Ged. 15).

84 Indien, ed. Suphan, vol. 29, p. 665.

85 "An Hafyz Ges?ngen haben wir fast genug; Sadi ist uns lehrreicher gewesen." Adrastea vi. ed. Suphan, vol. 24, p. 356.

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