23 NOVEMBER 1918, Page 18

Les Rubaiyat d'Omar Kheyyant. Traduits par Odette St. Lys. (Skeffington.)—Mlle.

St. Lys has made an interesting attempt in this little pocket volume to rend or FitzGerald's first version of his Butaiyat into French verse in the same metre as the original. It is not a very exact rendering, nor are its rhymes so strict as Prenoh poetic convention requires, but it is pleasant to read. One very familiar stanza is given thus :— " La, an desert, touohant a l'infuti, Un livre, un pain, et un verre rempli- Et Toi, m'amour, ohantant, a mes o6tes-- Ah ! le desert sera mon paradis."

The English text of the first edition is printed on alternate pages, facing the French.