PERLES D'ORIENT

1 vol. 250 pp. (Rolandi), London.

Not only true to its title in the text, this work contains, besides ' Orient peaiis at random strung,' many another ' pearl o' priée ;' and dipping into its pages, like the Cingalee driver, sinking into the depths of the Manaar sea, to search for and gather its teeming treasures, so the attention of the reader is compelled, when the eyes light upon the numerous gems of poesy contained in this collection. The metaphor, — far-brought though it may seem — will be acknowledged as directly applicable, in its référence, to the verses and their origin; translations, for the most part, from the Oriental poets and writers of note.

This work will rank as one of the many valuable additions to the standard literature of three great nations ;

tlian whom, no one more than the Chevalier, has so much, personally, contributed to familiarize or educate, one with the other, by his philological labours. In an union of honest and manly sentiment, France, England and America can grasp hands together, when grâce to the clear and vigorous rendering of the vétéran translator, they mutually read in their respective languages, and comprehend alike, word for word, with sentiments akin, the immortal lines of Burns :

A man's a man for a' that !

But this instance is merely one of the many — we might say, the multitude of, — transpositions that the Chevalier has given to the world. The entire range of British littérateurs hâve been made known, by judicious sélections from their works, to the appréciation of their brethren cV Outre-Manche ; and none but the initiated or cultured linguist can properly estimate the difficulties of a correet and literal adaptation from the one language to the other, in considering the formidable obstacles presented by the idiomatic peculiarities of the insular verse, and especially, in the : braid ' Scotch dialect of the c ploughman poet. '

To return to the book under notice, which is dedicated to M. Garcin de Tassy, a distinguished French Orientalist, we find extracts from the Persian, Hindostanee and Chaldean, translated into French, a language, as it seems to us, in its smooth and flowing diction, better suited to reproduce the subtle imagery and glowing thoughts of the poets of the Hafiz and Saadi school, than the ruder, if yet more forcible, Anglo- Saxon or Teuton tongues. Full justice appears to hâve been 3delded to the thèmes of the various pièces, and unlike many other writers, who either wilfully conceal or studiously ignore the sources to which they are indebted, refusing to another mind the crédit or création of the intellectual conceit, the translations, or otherwise, in this work are duly noted with the names of the différent authorities to whom the original inspiration is due, a eommendable précèdent, but one not generally observed.

In the columns devoted to our French section will be found an example of the Chevalier's unquestïoned ability and powers of poetical translation.

We close, lingeringly, Perles d'Orient, and with the same sensé of feeling as waking from a pleasant dream of rose bowers and oleander groves, whilst, in fancy, the glou-glou of the nightingale and the tinkle of camel-bells die away on the drowsy hearing, fading like a melting vision of Eastern romance, before the misty sight, and we take our leave of the Chevalier and his brilliant verses with the appropriate Tamil plaudit, "rhûmbo nelâh!" — Le Cosmopolite of Geneva, 5 Octobre^ 1874.