Gazels of Jeláleddín
Done into English
‘Why heed the Critics who delight to dart
Their sneer-tipped arrows at translator’s art?
The poet’s work remains his own at last
Though it in other languages be cast.
And in the sky of Fame it still will shine,
By that which made it at the first divine.
But in this foreign dress some soul may see
A hint of that which fascinated me;
Some deep impression be still deeper made
When by our muse-beloved tongue conveyed;
Some beauty be with newer beauty set;
Some thought that will with fresh emotion fret
Some gentle breast, or with strange music sweep
O’er heaving waters of the spirit’s deep.’
Edward Robeson Taylor
of San Francisco.