3. Meteshaf Enoch Nabi (The Book of Enoch the Prophet, an Apocryphal production, supposed for ages to have been lost, but discovered at the close of the last century in Abyssinia). Now first Miscellaneous Literary Notices.-France, Germany, Greece, Italy, THE FOREIGN QUARTERLY REVIEW. ART. I.-1. Coranus textus Arabicus. Edidit Dr. G. Flügel. 4to. 2. Coranus Arabice Recensionis Flügeliane textum recognitum iterum exprimi curavit G. M. Redslob, Phil. Dr. et in Univers. Literar. Lips. Prof. Publ. Extraord. gr. 8vo. 3. Al Koran.-By Mahomet. Translated by Sale, &c. How is it the Korann is so little read? Our most popular tales are adopted from the East, our most popular poetry coloured from its imagery and its mannerisms;-Why is the most imaginative and most poetical of all Eastern compositions comparatively unnoticed? The deepest investigations of the historian relate to the stupendous revolutions which Asia has undergone. Why is the eloquence in which the most stupendous of these originated suffered to sleep in silence on the shelf? In an age when philosophy probes, and religion strives to reconcile, all the varieties of mental persuasion, why is the impregnable faith of half the world generally unread and almost always unstudied? Such are the reflections and anticipations with which the literary tyro enters on the perusal of the Korann; but he has hardly concluded a chapter before he finds the answer to his queries, and feels himself obliged to struggle with the very apathy he had condemned in others. A tissue of reiterated rhapsodyallusions which are unknown-regulations the necessity and the object of which are not understood-couched too in an idiom and a phraseology very different from those of any other work with which he may be acquainted-are all the most attentive reader can at first discover. If he makes an attempt at translation, his patience has to undergo a still severer trial: the only tolerable version is that of Sale, who, though a master of the language, has been betrayed by a cruel scrupulousness into translating words rather than ideas. In both cases the result is commonly the same-the student throws by his book in disgust, and adds another to the number of those who are content to hear of the beauties of the Korann, without attempting to become acquainted with them. Or, if his resolution is proof against the difficulties he meets with, he runs through it without attention and closes it without an idea. Many chapters indeed, to all but the linguist, are better passed over than read, as they are mere repetitions of others more instructive and none can be perused with interest till some clue is obtained to the order and object of composition. VOL. XXIV. NO. XLVII. B We flatter ourselves, therefore, that we shall be doing an acceptable service to more than one class of readers, by taking a cursory review of the style, matter, and general peculiarities of this extraordinary work, and applying the leading chapters to the circumstances that explain their purport. This it is impossible to do without considering at the same time the character and fortunes of the author; and this article will consequently treat of Mahomet as well as of his Scripture. At our first step we plunge at once into the awfulness of the general question. With the exception of prayers, a few of which only occur, the Korann is written throughout in the person of the Almighty. Remonstrances and instructions, promises and threats, blessings and curses, are all represented as proceeding directly from him. And though sometimes the current of enthusiasm and indignation seems to lose sight of its sacred source, the connection is constantly recalled at the end of the period. Though a good deal of what may be strictly termed poetry occurs in the early chapters, the bulk of the work is prose which rhymes. To preserve the concluding cadence, a few words of similar import and construction are constantly made use of, and it is this continual recurrence of almost identical phrases after sentences of prose, which renders translation such a difficult task. Without the license of poetry and without the plainness of prose, it is impossible to preserve its effect without sacrificing its identity. Were any one bound in translating Homer, or Hesiod, to render strictly all the complimentary and terminating epithets that have such fine effect in the original, his version would be nearly as unentertaining as Sale's translation of the Korann. Yet in this there would be less difficulty, because in them every part of every line has all the freedom and fancy of poetry. It would seem, however, that the sentences have a rude species of rhythm independent of the terminating cadence; but one which is unattainable to a European ear. Our cathedral chaunts, in which verses of very different length are all adapted to the same melody, will enable us to understand how this may be. If the reader will turn to Mrs. Harris's petition in Swift, and * To save him trouble we subjoin a few lines of each : "To their Excellencies the Lords Justices of Ireland, the humble Petition of Frances Harris, "Who must starve and die a maid if it miscarries, Humbly sheweth, that I went to warm myself in Lady Betty's chamber because it was cold, "And I had in my purse seven pounds four shillings and sixpence (besides farthings) in silver and gold," &c. "It is impossible to know by your letter whether the wine is to be bottled to-morrow or no. "If it be or be not, why did not you, in plain English, tell us so? |