Читать книгу The Bakhtyār Nāma. A Persian Romance онлайн

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So far as I am aware, there are but two translations of the Persian version in European languages; one in English, by Sir William Ouseley,^[17] which is reproduced in the present volume; the other in French, by M. Lescallier.^[18] In his Preface, Sir William Ouseley states that he selected for translation a text composed in the least ornate style, and he seems to have contented himself with a rather free rendering (see prefatory remarks, Notes and Illustrations, page ssss1 of the present work). M. Lescallier takes care to inform his reader that he adopted another plan: picking out passages from two different manuscripts, and amalgamating his selections into a work which, it is safe to say, does not find its original in any single Persian text extant: his object, indeed, seems to have been to present an entertaining romance to French readers, rather than to produce a translation of any particular Persian original; and it must be admitted that many of the lengthy conversations which occur in his volume are quite as well omitted by Ouseley.