Emerson and Saadi: A Connection Made by Lingua franca

Introduction
According to Akrami, transcendentalist literature was the first site through which Persian poetry found its way to American literature and culture. The harbinger of the American Transcendentalist movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, paid an incomparable attention to Persian poetry and particularly to the poetry of Hafiz and Saadi. He had a significant role in introducing these poets to the other intellectuals of his time and to the readership of his books and the magazines associated to him. The present article tries to, on the one hand, collect Emerson's translations of Saadi's poems, which are scattered in his various works, also find their Persian originals and examine them from the perspective of André Lefebvre. Also, it aims to take this study one step further and find out the effect of these translations on some of Emerson's poems. It is worth mentioning that J. D. Yohanan and R. Akrami have mentioned some of these translations. In addition, Akrami has specified the Persian origin of three cases. According to the documents, we know that Emerson did not know Persian, therefore, he got acquainted with the works of Iranian poets, especially Saadi and Hafez, through other languages, namely English, French, Latin, and especially German.
 
Review of Literature
Compared to Hafez and Emerson, less research has been done on Sa’di and Emerson. Perhaps one of the reasons is that more translations of Saadi's works have been available to the audience. It is said that there have been fewer translations of Saadi, who was almost as popular as Hafez with Emerson, probably only because he was previously well known for is numerous translations of Golestan, one of which Emerson himself introduced to the American readers of his time. Emerson’s engagement with Persian poetry have been subject of many studies. One, "Sa’di’s influence on the greatest American poets of the 19th century" by J. Clinton.
This article examines Emerson's poem entitled "Saadi" and his introduction to Gladwin's translation of Golestan, and he believes that Emerson has not been able to know Sa’di and his world to the same as a Persian reader. Two, "Sa’di and Emerson" by F. Jahanpur. This article deals with Emerson's introduction to Persian poetry and briefly touches on Emerson's introduction to Golestan translated by Gladwin. Three, "Emerson and Sa’di: Genetics of a Re-written Grief" by R. Akrami. This paper gives a genetic reading of Emerson’s translation of a poem 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.
 
Methodology
The present article tries to analyze, on the one hand, Emerson's translations of Saadi's poems through the prism of André Lefevere’s seven strategies and on the other hand find their influence on Emerson's poems from the viewpoint of S. S. Prawer. According to André Lefebvre, there are seven strategies for translating poetry: 1. Phonemic Translation: reproducing the source language sound in the target language. 2. Literal Translation: word for word translation. 3. Metrical Translation: reproducing the source language meter. 4. Verse to Prose Translation: Distorting the sense, communicative values and syntax of source text. 5. Rhymed Translation: transferring the rhyme of the original poem into target language. 6. Blank/free verse translation: finding just the proper equivalents in the target language with a proper semantic result. 7. Interpretation: version and imitation. Version occurs when the absence of source language text is retained and the form is changed. Imitation occurs when the translator produces the poem of his own. From Prawar's point of view, the study of the influence of poets and writers on each other is divided into two major sections: the first one is the study of the direct borrowing of poets and writers from each other; the second one is the examination of indirect borrowing. While investigating the influence of poets and writers on each other, the first step is to identify the type of influence (direct or indirect).
 
Discussion
As I said, in comparison to Hafez, Emerson has translated far fewer poems by Saadi. These translations are not complete, that is, Emerson did not intend to translate all the verses of an ode, sonnet, or poem, but she chose and translated a few verses for her own convenience. These translations are not collected together in a volume, they are scattered in different sources, i. e. Emerson's paper on Sa’di, Emerson's paper on Persian poetry, and Emerson's other literary remains. In general, Emerson's translations of Persian poets can be divided into three groups.
One, it includes the works that she translated word for word from the German text into English. Two, it consists of excerpts from various Persian poems that she mixed together and created a single poem. Three, it comprises of adaptation (or free translation) rather than translation. In other words, they can rarely be considered translations in the original sense of the word. According to an Emerson Scholar’s, Emerson’s engagement with Persian poetry gave a Persian touch to his original products. In addition to the evident influence on Emerson’s poetry, Persian thought also influenced and expanded Emerson’s philosophy in several ways.
 
Conclusion
Emerson has translated nine pieces of Saadi's poems. These translations are not complete, that is, Emerson did not translate all lines of an ode, a gazelle, or a Masnavi, but he selected and translated, for his own convenience, a few lines form them. For a long time, Emerson scholars have believed that Emerson's poetry has developed significantly after his acquaintance with Persian poetry. In addition, this preoccupation with Persian poetry has given a Persian local color to Emerson's original poems, and sometimes it is too difficult to say which poem is translated from Persian and which one is written in English. However, in Emerson's collected poems there are three, or even four, short pieces that he wrote under the influence of reading and translating Saadi's different works. These pieces include “Hush”, “Secret”, “Terminus”, and “Days”.
 
References

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