The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam. Translated by E. H. Whin-
field. (Kagan Paul, Trench, and Co.)—This is a new edition of a volume in " Triibner's Oriental Series." Mr. Whinfield has selected two hundred and fifty of the Quatrains as the best speci- mens of original and translation. We may compare one with Fitzgerald's rendering :—
WHINFIELD.
" We are but chessmen, destined, it is plain, That great chess-player, Heaven, to entertain ; It moves us on life s chess-board to and fro, And then in death's box shuts us up again."
FITZGERALD.
"But helpless pieces of the game he plays Upon this checqeer-board of nights and days: Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays, And one by one back in the closet lays."
Here is another of Mr. Whinfield's renderings :—
"He brought me hither and I felt surprise, From life I gather but a dark surmise,
I go against my will ;—thus, why I come, Why live, why go, are all dark mysteries."
An Unco' Stravaig. By Cochrane Morris. (Ward and Downey.) —This is a specimen, and a Scotch specimen, of what may be called the "new humour." A tour in the Highlands of Scotland is described, and the ways of the tourists that make it. We must own that the fun, though it is abundant in quantity, has failed to amuse us, even though reinforced by the author's own illustra- tions. Others may be more susceptible.
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