76
noble that even to name it, is to profane it."
I am quoting the words of an English writer
with reference to Nizamat Jung's 1918 Sonnets.
His use of the English language with de-
licacy and a sense of power and mastery has evok-
ed the admiration of eminent English readers. It
has been said that his command of it is complete
and that he is faultless in his choice of vocabulary.
Mr. McCurdy, author of the Roses of Paestum,
i wrote after reading his Sonnets, " It seems al-
/ most incredible that his poems are not written
| in the poet's mother-tongue." The Yorkshire
Post remarked, " No one would suspect that the
poet had written in a foreign language." Mr.
Arthur S. Way, translator of Homer and Euri-
pedes, etc., compared what he called Nizamat
Jung's " marvellous performance " to Milton's
Italian poems and Swinburne's French ones.
Such tributes of praise made me naturally
curious to know how Nizamat Jung had acquired
his command of English. " It was by feeling
myself to be English when reading English books,"
he replied, " and entering into the thoughts and
feelings of the English race, and regarding myself
as one of them actually taking part in the events
about which I happened to be reading. This
habit grew upon me and has continued through
life." Then after a pause : " It is the love of
the subject. You have to lose yourself in it.
Get the feeling, and the words will come. I
still remember some lines out of a poem read at
school when I was about 12, in which the triumph