Ghaxels from. the Divan of Hafiz. Done into English by
Justin Huntly McCarthy. (David Nutt.)—Mr. J. H. McCarthy has translated these selections from the great Persian poet into prose. From one point of view he has done well ; we probably see Hafiz and not McCarthy, whereas it is difficult to distinguish, in a parallel case, Fitzgerald from Omar Khayyam. It has been much discussed whether Hafiz's utterances are real or mystical; whether, as our translator puts it in his preface, "the Beloved is Spirit or very Flesh, whether the Wine is the Blood of the Grape or the Ichor of Doctrine." Anyhow, if it is allegory, the truth is closely veiled, and one might suggest, as the Jews ruled in the case of "The Song of Songs," that no one under the age of thirty should read it. One thing is certainly plain, that Hafiz, whether spiritual or carnal, had a surpassingly good conceit of himself.
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