VICTOR HUGO'S ORIENTALES.* I. SARA'S BATH. Le soleil et les vents, dans ces bocages sombres, Des feuilles sur son front faisaient flotter les ombres.-ALFRED DE VIGNY. In a swinging hammock lying, Sara, lovely indolent, O'er a fountain's crystal wave, Her young beauty, see her bent. As she leans, so sweet and soft, O'er the mirror, to and fro, From some sea-gull's wing of snow. Every time the frail boat laden Skims the water in its flight, A white foot and neck so white. As that sweet foot's timid tips Passing, in the rippling pool, Laughs to feel the pleasant cool. The present Translations, selected from the "Orientales" of Hugo, are the result of an attempt to ascertain if any of the grace and beauty of the originals could be preserved in an English version exactly reproducing their peculiar measures and combinations of rhyme. In some of his poems Hugo has undoubtedly carried to an extreme length his fantastic and daring extravagance of rhyme, in lines where he denies to his muse any freer elbow-room than may be found within the limits of a single syllable; sometimes, however, when not pushed to excess, there is an exquisite felicity in his light and dancing measures-as in "Sara la Baigneuse," which is here very imperfectly rendered. If any reader should so far misunderstand the principles of a true purity and delicacy of taste, as to find fault with the innocent and statuesque simplicity of the beautiful tableau vivant which it presents, he is referred to the story of Musidora's bath in Thompson's Seasons. In the poem of the "Djinns," the ascending and descending scale of the measure corresponds with singular effect to the meaning which it aims at once to express and to illustrate. In these translations (which constituted the amusement of a few travelling hours, with no other companionship than a pencil and a pocket volume) a certain degree of freedom is of course sometimes necessary, to preserve any portion of the spirit of the originals; though an unexpected degree of closeness has generally been found possible. The superior facilities of rhyme afforded by the French (being so much more a language of terminations than the English), will perhaps be best appreciated by those readers who may feel inclined to try the same experiment. And I heard a loud voice.-REVELATIONS. Alone beside the waves, beneath the stars, I stood; And as beyond this world pierced far my spirit's gaze, The woods, the mounts, and all that glorious nature round, Meseeméd did invoke, in dimly murmuring sound, The ocean waves, the starry blaze. And all the countless stars that gild the firmament, Answered, as, bending low, their flaming crowns adored: III. SULTAN ACHMET. Oh! suffer me, lovely maiden, to enfold my neck within thy arms.—Hafız. To Juana ever gay, Sultan Achmet spake one day : Lo, the realms that kneel to own Maiden dear, for thee alone. Be a Christian, noble King! Love to seek and find too well Spain with cry of shame would ring, By those pearls whose happy chain, IV. THE DJINNS. E come i gru van cantando lor lai, Ombre portate d'alla detta briga.-DANTE. Town, tower, Shore, deep, Cliffs steep. Hark, a sound, Roaring bright. Now on 'tis sweeping In gallop fleet: He flies, he prances, Hark, the rising swell, Oh God! the deadly sound 'Tis the Djinns' wild streaming swarm Ha! they are on us, close without! Wild cries of hell! voices that howl and shriek! Oh Prophet, if thy hand but now Laden with pious offerings. Stream on my faithful door in vain, Vainly upon my blackened pane, Grate the fierce claws of their dark wings! They have passed!--and their wild legion Cease to thunder at my door ; |