ΤΗ PREFACE. HIS translation of the Dīvān of Shamsu-d-Din-Muḥammad-i-Hafiz-iShīrāzī is made from the Persian text, edited by Major H. S. Jarrett, and published, under the auspices of the Government of India, in 1881 at Calcutta. The Persian text is mainly a re-print of the recension, with a commentary in Turkish, up to the eightieth Ode, published in the seventeenth century by Sūdi, the Bosnian, and re-published in 1854 at Leipzig by Hermann Brockhaus. The differences between Brockhaus' text and Jarrett's text are given below: Jarrett's Persian text is complete; is printed in the conventional Oriental type; and is sold† for the modest sum of two rupees. Its defects are: (a) that it has no commentary, without which it is impossible to render many of the lines; (b) that, in it, are many uncorrected misprints; (c) that not so much as a paper-space of quarter of an inch has been left between the Odes; (d) that the couplets are un-numbered, rendering reference difficult; (e) that the prosody of the Odes is omitted; (f) that the kit'a giving the date of the death of Ḥänz is omitted. * Secretary to the Board of Examiners (Oriental Languages) under the Government of India. + The Office, Board of Examiners, Elysium Row, Calcutta. 2. In the bāzārs of Calcutta, Lakhnaū, Kānpur, Dihli and Bombay,are lithographed copies of the Persian text of the Divan-i-Hafiz with copious notes (in Persian). In all, the Odes are arranged in the same order, but not with the same paging. The Odes of this translation bear two numbers-the un-bracketed number refers to Jarrett's Persian text, and the bracketed, to the bāzār Persian text. The student should carefully number from the beginning the Odes of the bāzār text, and thus obtain concordance between it and this translation. Beyond Ode 573, I have not been able to give the bāzār number, the text differing widely from Jarrett's text. 3. The work done in this translation consists of : This translation is based upon : (a) Jarrett's Persian text, 1881, as a standard. (b) The bāzār-Persian text, Calcutta, 1858, with a running commentary by Fath-i-'Ali, a member of the household of the late ex-King of Oudh. (c) The bāzār-texts with running commentary (all in Persian) of Lakhnaū, Kānpur, Dihli, and Bombay. (d) A commentary in Persian (p. 348) 1876 by Maulavi Sayyid Muḥammad Ṣādik 'Ali, Lakhnau. (e) The Misbahu-l-hidayat, a translation in Persian of the 'Awarif,† by Maḥmūd bin 'Ali al Kashani, lithographed in 1875 at Lakhnau. For the notes, I have made use of : (a) The Ķurān. (b) The Darvishes by J. P. Brown. (c) Lane's Arabian Society. * These copies cost about rupees. Application may be made to : (a) Munshi Nuwal Kishur, C.S.I., the Press, Lakhnaū. (b) Khan Bahadur, G. M. Mūnshi & Sons, Urdu Instructor Office, Kalbadivi Road, Bombay. †The Awarifu-l-Mu'arif was written in Arabic by Shahabu-d-Din 'Umar bin Muhammad-iSahrwardi (b. 1145, d. 1234). (d) History of Persia by Malcolm and by Clements Markham. (e) Beale's Biographical Dictionary. (f) Preface to the Gulshan-i-Rāz by E. H. Whinfield. 4. Being unacquainted with German, I have been unable to avail myself of the translations (in German) Thus, I have been forced to make the translation from the original Persian. This is not a translation of a translation.* A list of works relating to Hafiz is given on p. xviii. 5. In the Persian text, 1854, by Hermann Brockhaus, the scanning of the first line of each ode is given; and in a work† 1887, by Pistanji, Kuvarji Taskar, the scanning with prosody-notes of the following eighty-two odes is given : * In 1770 at Vienna, Baron Revisky published his Specimina Foeseos Persico; since then, Sir W. Jones, and Messrs. Richardson and Carlyle, have translated into English scattered odes. See p. XVIII. †The title is : Odes of Ḥafiz with explanatory notes by Pistanji Kuvarji Taskar, Education Society's Press, The student will find useful: (a) "The Prosody of the Persians" by H. Blochmann, Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta, 1872. (b) "The Elements of Persian Prosody " by G. S. Ranking, B.A., M.D., Education Society's Press, Byculla, Bombay, 1885. (c) "A Grammar of the Persian tongue" by Pistanji Kuvarji Taskar, 1886. 6. This is a prose-translation and professes to give the literal and the şu fiistic meanings. To render Hafiz in verse, one should be a poet at least equal in power to the author. Even then it would be well nigh impossible to clothe Persian verse with such an English dress as would truly convey its beauties; and if such a translation could be made, it would be of little value to the student. In support, I would quote the following authorities: Mr. Sale says:— I have thought myself obliged to keep scrupulously close to the text, by which means the language may seem to express the Arabic a little too literally to be elegant English. We must not expect to read a version of so extraordinary a book (the Ķuran) with the same ease and pleasure as a modern composition. Mr. Palmer says: I have translated each sentence as literally as the difference in structure between the two Sir W. Jones says: I would recommend a version ¶ in modulated but unaffected prose in preference to rhymed couplets. Though not a single image or thought should be added by the translator, it would be allowable to omit several conceits unbecoming in European dress. We cannot show less indulgence to a poet of Iran than we do to Shakespeare. In the translation,** not only every attempt at elegance but even the idiom of our language and the usual position of words have been designedly sacrificed to scrupulous fidelity. See works of Sir W. Jones, 1807, xiii. p. 395; xiv. p. 385. Sir W. Jones (b. 1734, d. 1794) was an eminent lawyer, a poet, and general scholar. As a poet, essayist, and translator few excelled him ; as a linguist, he stood unrivalled. In 1784, he founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta. ¶ Of the poem "Laila va Majnun by 'Abdu-l-lah-i-Hatifi, 1520 A.D. ** Of twenty tales by Nizami of Ganja. |