Title Page and Front Matter
SHORTER PIECES
OF
ARABIAN POETRY.
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE,
BY J. D. CARLYLE, BḌ.
As the following translations were attempted at different times and with different impressions, their execution is, no doubt, very unequal: in general they will, I trust, be found as literal as the nature of two languages, so little resembling each other in their structure, will admit; in some few instances I have indulged myself in a greater latitude, and have given rather an imitation than a version;—in such a manner, however, I hope, as not in any place to have lost sight of the original idea of the writer.—From the Translator's Preface.
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Most of the Translator's interesting Biographical Notices of the Authors and the subjects of these little pieces are, with some additional Notes, placed in the Appendix to this volume.—Ed.