there is much, I think, that might be struck out, to the advantage of the poem, this I have in no instance ventured to do, my aim having been to give the English reader as faithful a cast of the original as my own power and the nature of things would permit, and, without attempting to give word for word or line for line, to produce upon the imagination impressions similar to those which one who studies the work in Sanskrit would experience.
I will not seek to anticipate the critics, nor to deprecate their animadversions, by pointing out the beauties of the Poet, or particularizing the defects of him and his Translator; that the former will he appreciated, and the latter kindly dealt with, late experience makes me confident; so that now, in the words of the Manager in the Prelude to the Hero and the Nymph, "I have only to request the audience that they will listen to this work of Kálidasa with attention and kindness, in consideration of its subject and respect for the Author."
Marlborough College, April, 1853.
