IN presenting this translation of the first volume of Badāonī's Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Selections from Histories) I cannot but be conscious of its many defects.
No one who has not attempted to translate from Persian into English can form the slightest idea of the special difficulties of the task.
The inherent differences of idiom in the two languages, the rich expansiveness of the one, and the rigid inflexibility of the other, render the attempt to fitly represent the glowing colours of Persian in the dull monotone of modern English, all but hopeless. It has been said that the test of a translation is not its literalness but its truth: that is to say, not its fidelity to the author's expression, but its response to his inspiration. It must not merely reproduce the letter, it must embody the spirit of the original composition.
How great is the demand thus made upon the translator must be evident to anyone who is acquainted with both Persian and English: and the difficulties which appear so formidable in prose translation, become insurmountable in the case of poetry.
The various metres of Persian poetry are so entirely characteristic and essential in their nature, that it has appeared to me futile, if not impertinent, to attempt similar metrical renderings in English.
Even where it is possible to reproduce by conjunction of English words, the rhythm and accent of any Persian metre, such a composition no more recalls the original, than does the skeleton of the anatomical museum summon up the living and breathing animal.
For this reason, the poetical portions of Badāonī's work have, in the present translation, almost without exception been rendered, not in verse but in prose, thus preserving the substance while sacrificing the form, as the transparent cube of salt may be crushed so as to be unrecognisable by its crystalline form, but still retains its chemical composition. To render poetry satisfactorily a translator must be both linguist and poet; if he be only a linguist he should not tamper with the finished work of the poet; he can, at best, only hope to outline the subject, leaving the colour-scheme untouched.
I am aware that a high authority* has expressed himself in favour of the translation of Persian poetry into English verse, but the qualifications which shall render a translator competent to undertake such a task must fall to the lot of very few.
With this full knowledge of the difficulties to be encountered, the present translation was undertaken, and it is presented in the confidence that those who are the best judges of the nature of the task will be the first to make allowances for defects in its performance.
| CALCUTTA: | } | GEORGE RANKING. |
| July 18th, 1898. |
For a life of Badāonī reference should be made to page 117 of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. III, 1869, where an excellent biography will be found written by the late Professor Blochmann.
The sources from which this translation has been made are the following:—
1. The “Muntakhab Al-Tawārīkh,” edited by Maulavī Aḥmad Alī, printed at the College Press, Calcutta, 1868, and published in the Bibliotheca Indica of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. I, referred to in the translation as the Text.
2. Manuscript No. 1592 of the Muntakhabu-t-Tawārīkh of ‘Abdu-l-Qādir Mulūk Shāh Badāonī, in the library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Written by one Muḥammad Saiyyid (?), in the year 1255 H. (1839 A.D.). This is referred to in the translation as MS. (A).
3. Manuscript No. A. 44, also from the above library. This is referred to in the translation as MS. (B). The transcriber of this Manuscript is one Muḥammad Nāim. It bears no date.
The printed text has been carefully collated with these two manuscripts, and all variant readings noted.