Emerson and Saadi: Genetics of a Re-written Grief

This paper explores Ralph Waldo Emerson’s engagement with the poetry of Saadi. It focuses on his notebook Orientalist and addresses some of Emerson’s translations of Saadi that appear in this notebook. It also gives a genetic reading of Emerson’s translation of a ghazal of Saadi about the death of his son and demonstrates how through the five drafts of this translation, Emerson identifies with Saadi and expresses some of his most private feelings. Emerson, one of the most important figures of American thought and literature, came across Persian poetry in the early 1840s and became fascinated with the poetry of Hafiz and Saadi ever since. This fascination prompted him to translate more than 2000 lines of Persian poetry from Joseph von Hammer Purgstall’s German translations. Since Emerson’s notebook Orientalist, which contains a great number of his translations of Persian poetry, was published only a few decades ago, the translation drafts in this notebook are less explored. Through focusing on these translations, this paper, on the one hand, refers to some less addressed sides of Emerson’s engagement with the poetry of Saadi; and, on the other hand, by showing how Emerson transfers his own grief to his translation of Saadi, this paper speaks to a range of current discussions on the complexity of Emerson’s ways of addressing grief.

Keywords:

Emerson , Saadi , Translation , Persian Poetry