The Diwan of Abul-Ala

The Diwan of Abu'l-Ala

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Title: The Diwan of Abu'l-Ala
Author: Henry Baerlein
Release Date: August 2, 2004 [EBook #13086]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
DIWAN OF ABU'L-ALA ***

The Wisdom of the East Series
Edited by L. CRANMER-BYNG Dr. S. A. KAPADIA

THE DIWAN OF ABU'L-ALA
By HENRY BAERLEIN
Author of "In Pursuit of Dulcinea," "The Shade of the Balkans,"
"Yrivand," etc.
The stars have sunk from the celestial bowers, And in the garden have
been turned to flowers. MUTAMID, in captivity.
Second Edition
LONDON: John Murray, 1909.

DEDICATION
TO DR. E. J. DILLON
Now the book is finished, so far as I shall finish it. There is, my friend,
but this one page to write. And, more than probably, this is the page of
all the book that I shall never wish to blot. Increasing wisdom or, at any
rate, experience will make me frown, I promise you, some time or other
at a large proportion of the pages of this volume. But when I look upon
your name I hear a troop of memories, and in their singing is my
happiness.
When you receive this book, presuming that the Russian Censor does
not shield you from it, I have some idea what you will do. The string,
of course, must not be cut, and you will seriously set about the
disentangling of it. One hand assists by holding up, now near the nose
now farther off, your glasses; the other hand pecks at the string. After,
say, twenty minutes there will enter the admirable Miss Fox--oh! the
tea she used to make for us when we were freezing on the mountains of
Bulgaria, what time our Chicagoan millionaire was ruffled and
Milyukov, the adventurous professor, standing now not far from
Russia's helm, would always drive ahead of us and say, with princely
gesture, that if we suffered from the dust it was advisable that he should
be the one to meet the fury of the local lions. But do not let us lose the
scent: Miss Fox, that woman of resource, will cut the string. And later
on, while to her you are dictating things political and while your other
secretary is discoursing music, mournful Russian music, then with
many wrinkles on your brow you will hold the book at arm's length.
"The Serbonian Bog," says Miss Fox, repeating the last lines of the
dictation.
Your face is held sideways with what is called, I believe, a quizzical
expression.
"Morocco," says she, "viewed from the banks of the Seine, is becoming
more and more like the Serbonian Bog." Then she waits, discreet as
always, while you think. Miss Fox, his thoughts are on the Adriatic!
There his boat, eleven years ago, was sailing underneath a net of stars
and he was talking to a fellow-traveller. They had been joined at first
by common suffering,--and how shall mortals find a stronger link? On
board that boat there was an elderly American, the widow of a senator's
brother-in-law, whose mission was, she took it, to convert those two.

What specially attracted her to them was not, perhaps, that they
excelled the other passengers in luridness, but that they had the
privilege of understanding, more or less, her language.
"Feci quod potui," said Dr. Dillon, "faciant meliora potentes."
She said, and let us hope with truth, that recently a Chinaman, another
object of her ministrations, had addressed her as "Your honour, the
foreign devil." And this caused her to discuss the details of our final
journey--in the meantime we have taken many others of a more
delightful sort--and she assured us that we should be joined by
Chinamen and all those Easterners. She had extremely little hope for
any of them, and Abu'l-Ala, the Syrian poet, whom Dr. Dillon had been
putting into English prose,-- Abu'l-Ala she steadily refused to read. Nor
did the prospect of beholding him in English verse evoke a sign of joy
upon her countenance. "Oh," she exclaimed, "what good is it?" And
there is naught for me to say but "Feci quod potui, faciant meliora
potentes."
H. B.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO THE DIWAN
THE DIWAN OF ABU'L-ALA
APPENDIX

EDITORIAL NOTE
The object of the Editors of this series is a very definite one. They
desire above all things that, in their humble way, these books shall be
the ambassadors of good-will and understanding between East and
West--the old