17 FEBRUARY 1906, Page 25

The Slicihnama of Pirdausi. Done into English by Arthur George

Warner, M.A., and Edmond Warner, B.A. Vol. I. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co. 10s. 6d.)—This is a voluble of " Trailer's Oriental Series." Firdausi's original extends to sixty thousand verses (about twice the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined). This will be somewhat reduced in the English. Mr. Warner tells us that he has used rhymed verse for the rendering of apologues, maxims, songs, and personal utterances of the poet, and that here he has rendered line by line, while the rest of the poem, the narrative, as it may be called, stands in the propor- tion Of about two Persian couplets to three English lines. This gives a result of something between forty-five thousand and fifty thousand lines ; of these we have perhaps nine thousand in, the • present volume ; the rest is to follow as opportunity serves. Mr. Warner, who pays a pathetic tribute to his late brother, whose continued collaboration he had hoped to have, has our sympathy and best wishes. It is too true that, as he says, "the Shihn‘ms, seems hardly to be known even by name to the vast majority of English readers." One story from it, " Sohrab and Rastum," has become famous, thanks to Matthew Arnold ; the remainder is unfamiliar. We have not had here the advantage of such a help as M. Mohrs splendid edition (including a translation). All the greater thinks are due to the enterprise and industry of Mr. Warner. We may give a specimen of Mr. Warner's version of the Prelude, in which Firdausi discourses generally of God, Man, Nature, and the Prophet (he was of the Shrite sect) :— Of ruby is you azure dome, not made Of air and water, dust and smoke ; 'tis all With lamp and torch in many a spot arrayed Like gardens for a New Year's festival. Within the dome, a gladdening gem behold Revolving; thence the light of day is spread, And every morning like a shield of gold It raiseth from the East its shining head ; The Earth is clad in robes of spreading light, The Sun declineth, and there come th night ; Day ne'er o'ertaketh night, nor night the day, More regular in all their movements they. 0 thou my Sun! hest thou for me no ray

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