88 On the Poetry of Madagascar. [Mar 



ch, 



the harmony of the verse arises from the accentuation and the caesura. 



The latter seems plainly discernible in Malagasy, as in this line : 



" Vavahady hidirana — misy Many/' 

 ( A door of entrance — that there is.) 



Yet the verses are unlike to English in respect to their being desti- 

 tute of rhyme, unaccented on the last syllable of a line, and scarcely if 

 ever permitting one line to run on in a continuous sense into another. 



The characters peculiarly essential to Malagasy versification seem to 

 be chiefly the following : 



1. Harmony of syllables and accentuation ; a deviation from which 

 rule produces a precisely similar harsh discordant effect on the ear 

 as in English. 



2. The expression must be diversified, and the words transposed, as 

 in other languages. 



3. Every line must be in some degree an independent sentiment ; 

 or at least a clause of a sentence, bearing a natural division in the 

 sense, and thence a pause of the voice in reading or singing. Hence 

 the sense is often strikingly abrupt and laconic, as will be seen in the 

 examples of literal translation. 



The language abounds much in polysyllables ; there are exceed- 

 ingly few monosyllables, and perhaps the greatest proportion of the 

 words are of five syllables. Hence a line of eight syllables generally 

 contains from two to five words, and a line of twelve is frequently com- 

 prised in four words. On this account a sentiment is rarely attempted 

 to be set off with superfluous ornaments of language, but stands en- 

 tirely on the merit of the figure under which it is conveyed. Of poe- 

 tical adjectives, so often highly convenient in English for filling up the 

 metre or adorning a graceless noun, scarcely an instance occurs in an 

 entire song. Yet the language, thought, aud style of the poetry is 

 quite of a different cast from prose. Abounding in the boldest figures, 

 and the sense left to connect itself by the chain of thought, it com- 

 mends itself to the mind as the rude and unpolished offspring of poeti- 

 cal genius. 



It is evident, that in a language so exceedingly different from English, 

 combined with a state of society equally different, it is impossible, on 

 the one hand, to give an intelligible literal translation, leaving the rea- 

 der's imagination to fill up the images ; and on the other hand, it is 

 difficult to give a vivid imitation of the original. For myself, I pretend 

 not to any talent in poetical composition, and am induced to make the 

 attempt merely by the novelty of the subject, until some more able pen 

 shall display in language more worthy of its subject the gleannings of 



