ADAPTÉ DE LA TRADUCTION DE FITZGERALD
Yet, Ah! that spring should vanish with the Rose! That youths sweet scented manuscript should close ! The Nightingale that in the branches sang Where is it flown its loss gives me a pang.
Would but the desei*t of the fountain yield One glimpse — if dimly, yet indeed, revealed, Toward which the fainting Traveller might spring. As springs the trampled grass whose praise I sing.
But see! The rising moon of heaven again
Looks for us, sweetheart, through the quivering Plane,
How oft hereafter rising will she look
For one of us in vain ! beside the brook 1
LARMES ET SOURIRES 48 i
Here is one of the quatrains which VVhinfield translated, but surely he should not have used the same word at the end of each three lines but have chosen one of a similar meaning, even though Omar Khayyam did this :
Thy being is the being of another, Thy passion is the passion of another ; Cover thy head, and think, and thou wilt see, Thy hand is but the cover of another.
As to M"" Whinlield's translation of the Rubaiyat, the Saturday Review says in comparing it with that of Fitzgerald « M"" Whinfield's version, if less poetical is more exact and scholarly while a critic proclaimed in a latei' number of « the Academy » that M''Whinfield is facile princeps as an editor and translate, o Umar — i — Khaiyam.
M"" Dole says « We get wearied with the constant recurrence of the praise of wine and with exhortations to drink and get drunken.
• Literal prose of M. Mc Cartky.
The time is come when the earth begins to burgeon; when the blossoms make the branches white as the hand of Moses, when the plants quicken with the breath of Jesus, and the clouds open their eyes to weep.
Fitzgerald's translation.
Now the New year reviving old desires The thoughtful soul to solitude retires Where the White Hand of Moses on the Bough Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.
My fully rhymed adaptation of Fitzgerald's translation is : Now the New year reviving old Desires, The thoughtful soul to solitude retires, Where the White Hand of Moses on the bough Stirs, and dear Jesus breathes on us, I vow.
Whinfield's translation.
Now spring-tide showers its foison on the land, And lively hearts wend forth, a joyous band. For Isa's breath wakes the dead earth to life, And trees gleam white with flowers like Muse's hand.
My adaptation of Whinfield's translation with the whole quatrain rhymed is : Now spring-tide showers its treasures on the land, And lively hearts go forth with pipe and fife. For Jesu's breath wakes the dead earth to life, And trees are white with flowers like Moses 'hand.
One of Fitzgerald's translated quatrains is the following :
But come with Old Khayyam and leave the Lot Of Kaikobad and Kaikosru forgot Let Rustum lay about him as he will Or Hatim Tai cry supper, heed him not.
Who can derive either pleasure or instruction trom this quatrain and who can understand any part of its precise meaning?- Of what did the lot of Kaikobad and Kaikhosru consist? why should they be forgotten ? and who were they? who was Rustum? on whom did he lay about him? why did Hatim Tai cry supper? who was Hatim Tai? and why were the persons whom Omar Khayyam addressed not to listen to his summons to supper? The whole
Note. — Itisvery interesting to Christians to learn from several of these quatrainswhat an exalted opinion Omar Khayyam entertained of Jesus and also of Moses. I subjoin M' Coutts's note on the reference to Jesus and to Moses in this quatrain.
Exodus iv-6 ; where Moses draws forth his Hand — not according to the Persian « leprous as Snow» but white as our May-blossom in spring!
According to them also the Healing Power of Jesus resided in his Breath!
48g LARMES Kï SOURIRES
.luatrain is a riddle ^Yhich it is impossible to solve and it is surprising that Fitzgerald should have selected it in preference to others of the hundreds .vhich Whinfield has chosen.
W La Gallienne has freely translated 261 quatrains of the Rubaiyat, and his translation has had two editions. He calls it & paraphrase from several literal translations. This paraphrase seems to me far inferior as poetry to Fitzgerald's and Whinfield's version and to differ more
from the prose literal translations. . . ^ , . ..,. .u r. • • • i
Whinfield has translated 508 of the qHatrains of the Rubaiyat with the Persian original words opposite. Oriental words used by Whinfield : (1) Khayn, (2) Allak, (3) Kabu, (4) Fus, (5) Kobad (6) Kai Kains, (7) Koran, (8) Rajab, (9) Shaban, (10) Ramazan, (11) Rahram, (12) Shaikh (13) Houri, (14) Isa, (15) Musa, (16) Mahmud, (17) Kasru, (18) Kausar, (19) Ralk, (90) Nishapore, (21) Chin, (22) Hamsa, (23) Zamzam, (24) Bairam, (25) Magh, (26) Shawwal, (-^7) Shiblis, (28) Junauts, (29) Khosran, (30) Jain, (31) Miriam, (32) Bu Said, (33) Bin Adham, (34) Ayaz, (35) Magian, (36) Khizer, (37) Kader, (38) Kalandars, (39) Yusuf, (40) Furki, (41) Faridun, (42j Murtaza, (43) Barat, (44) Rustam, (45) Hatim Tai, (46) Ya Sin, (47) Gehennom, (48) Shah, (49) Darvesh, (50) Elias.
