forth its rhyme,
"Oh, how wond'rous fair
Is the glad spring-time!"

Seldom has a volume of poems been received with more general applause.
Their renown spread rapidly through their native land; constantly
increasing demand for copies rendered needful frequent new editions,
to which at divers times were added by the author freshly-created
poems; and the interest is still alive, now nearly quarter of a
century after their first appearance, when they have passed their
fiftieth edition. They have been at one time or other translated into
most of the modern tongues of Europe; and that they have never gained
popularity with us is due probably to the fact that in those which
have been translated into our tongue neither the essence nor the form
of the original has been preserved. By the title no mystification was
ever designed: it came, as it were, of itself, and the purport of
the narrative through which the main songs were interwoven being well
known, it was never, supposed that a doubt concerning the authorship
could arise. Nevertheless, the critics accepted them as translations
from the Persian, and sharp lines of distinction were drawn between
the poet, Mirza-Schaffy, and his translator, Friedrich Bodenstedt,
not precisely to the advantage of the latter. Many a hearty laugh
did Bodenstedt indulge in on reading in one or another learned
dissertation that he was the possessor of a very neat poetic talent,
and frequently reminded one in his original compositions of the works
of his genial teacher, Mirza-Schaffy, of which he had given admirable
translations, though without attaining to the excellence of the
original. Now, a poet, in the wildest flights of his imagination,
could not hope for a more brilliant success for the poetic fiction
of his own creation than to have it accepted by the world as a living
reality. In this he would naturally delight, even though his own
personality were for a time thrust into the background, precisely like
a loving father whose children meet with better fortune in life than
himself. Sundry renditions into foreign tongues were even announced as
direct translations from the Persian.

After the death of the real Mirza-Schaffy in 1852, which was duly
announced by the press, sundry efforts were made by Eastern travelers
to visit his grave in Tiflis and gain those particulars concerning
him and his writings which Bodenstedt was supposed to have selfishly
withheld from the public. Of