Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/428

 402 Reviews.

same metre as we meet with in the most ancient Armenian hymnody, for example in this stanza :

Khostovanolc] foi'ithatzarouq | Djanal aprel yavourus mer Zi aur ;ihel kriy aradji | Ahel adean yev hour ansheadj,

which begins a hymn ascribed to the Patriarch John of Mandak, c. 4S0. It in turn both in rhythm and contents reminds us of the Dies irae dies ilia of Latin Christianity.

The poem was translated by Miss Wardrop, who died at Bucharest in 1909. The reviewer has compared parts of her version with the original, and can testify to its accuracy and scholarship. There are not half a dozen people in Europe who could have accomplished such a work. Her brother, Mr. Oliver Wardrop of Balliol College, himself a well-known authority on all things Georgian, has seen it through the press.. He observes in his preface that " when he wrote his poem, Rusl'haveli had evidently no violent prejudice for one religion more than another, but was of a critical and eclectic turn of mind, and formed for himself a working philosophy of life, showing Persian and Arabian tendencies, but with so much of Christianity and Neo-Platonism as to bring it near to Occidental minds."

He also summarises the poet's outlook on life in the following (I omit the stanza references which he adds for each clause) :

"There is throughout the poem manifest joy in life and action : God createth not evil ; ill is fleeting ; since there is gladness in the world, why should any be sad ? It is after all a good world, fair to look upon despite its horrid deserts, a world to sing in either because one is happy or because one wishes to be so ; there are flowers to gaze on, good wine to drink, fair apparel and rich jewels to wear, beasts worth hunting, games worth playing, foes to be fought, and friends to be loved and helped. There are grievous troubles, but they are to be battled against ; it is a law with men that they should struggle and suffer ; for them is endeavour, and victory lies with God ; however black the outlook, there must be no shirking, for the one deed especially Satan's is suicide ; the game must be played to the end manfully, and God is generous, though the world be hard ; He will make all right in the end, and sorrow alone shows a man's mettle. The keynote is optimism