Note 59 — The Third Book.
Reading edition
Persæ “pulcherrimâ usi translatione, pro versús facere dicunt margaritas nectere; quemadmodum in illo Ferdusii versiculo “Siquidem calami acumine adamantine margaritas nexi; in scientiæ mare penitus me immersi.”
Poeseos Asiaticæ Commentarii.
This is a favourite Oriental figure. “After a little time lifting his head from the collar of reflection, he removed the talisman of silence from the treasure of speech, and scattered skirts-full of brilliant gems and princely pearls before the company in his mirth-exciting deliveries.”
Bahar Danush.
Again in the same work—“he began to weigh his stored pearls in the scales of delivery.”
Abu Temam, who was an excellent poet himself, used to say, that, “fine sentiments delivered in prose were like gems scattered at random; but that when they were confined in a poetical measure, they resembled bracelets and strings of pearls.”
Sir W. Jones. Essay on the Poetry of the Eastern nations.
In Mr. Carlyle’s translations from the Arabic, a Poet says of his friends and himself
They are a row of Pearls, and I The silken thread on which they lie.
I quote from memory, and recollect not the Author’s name. It is somewhat remarkable that the same metaphor is among the quaintnesses of Fuller. “Benevolence is the silken thread, that should run thro’ the pearl chain of our virtues.”
Holy State.
It seems the Arabs are still great rhymers, and their verses are sometimes rewarded, but I should not venture to say that there are great Poets among them. Yet I was assured in Yemen that it is not uncommon to find them among the wandering Arabs in the country of Dsjâf. It is some few years since a Sheik of these Arabs was in prison at Sana: seeing by chance a bird upon a roof opposite to him, he recollected that the devout Mohammedans believe they perform an action agreable to God in giving liberty to a bird encaged. He thought therefore he had as much right to liberty as a bird, and made a poem upon the subject, which was first learnt by his guards, and then became so popular that at last it reached the Imam. He was so pleased with it that he liberated the Sheik, whom he had arrested for his robberies.
Niebuhr. Desc. de L’Arabie.