The Scented Garden

Introduction 5 that first letter of the first ode was Aleph, the second of the second Ba, the third of the third Jim, and so on ! I take great credit to myself for the fact that with only six transpositions my provisional order became that of the poet. THE POEM Abdullah el Haji flourished in circa 1600 A.D., well after the classic era of Persian poetry. But his style is highly praised by competent judges, though the older school regret the way in which he has broken away from tradition in : (a) the introduction of coarse expressions. (b) the undue exercise of poetic license : such as (1) his extension of the usual license re the genitive kasra to all kasra sounds. (2) his occasional breach of the rule which forbids two inert consonants to occur togeth- er, though a friendly commentator inge- niously asserts that he does this only to add to the grimness of verses describing anger, punishment, terror, death, or some unplea- sant idea. : (3) his treatment of the Tarjiband : and (4) his trick of inventing words to carry out some extravagant metaphor or paranoma- sia : (c) his novel symbolism, which they deplore as likely to confuse even the most pious : (d) per contra, his novel symbolism as likely to be understood of even the least instructed : and (e) his constant gibes at Sadi. (I must admit that I was quite unable to see the point of any single one of these, though Mahbub took a deal of pains to shew me. They appear to depend on subtle points of grammar and phraseology.)