Eric Hermelin
Encyclopedia
Eric Axel Hermelin, Baron Hermelin (June 22, 1860 – November 8, 1944) was a Swedish
author and prolific translator of Persian
works of literature.
, Östergötland County
and had a traditional education, at the end of which he spent a couple of years at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Uppsala
, which he left without taking a degree. Already at this stage he seems to have developed a taste for alcohol, which later became an addiction, with drastic life-long consequences. After an unsuccessful attempt at farming on a family estate, he began a wandering life abroad. In 1883 he went to the United States and eked out a living as a teacher, a carpenter, and a soldier, before returning to Europe
in 1885. In 1886 he traveled to England
and joined the British
army as a soldier in the Middlesex Regiment (under the name of Thomas Edward Hallan). He went with his regiment to India
in the following year. However, his army career in India proved a failure. He was much troubled by disease, and by then his drinking had developed into full-blown alcoholism, possibly in combination with the use of narcotic drugs. Nevertheless, he spent time on language studies, obviously in preparation for one of the language examinations that formed part of the British administrative system in India
. He states that he learnt Hindustani
(i.e., Urdu
) and also started to learn Persian
. There is, however, no record showing that he had passed any examination in these subjects. In later years he occasionally referred to his India
n "Monshi," and it is also likely that he had his first encounters with Sufism
at that time. In April 1893 he was finally discharged from the army "with ignominy," i.e., for disciplinary reasons. After that he became an even more intrepid traveler, going to England
and America
(including Jamaica
) and then back to Sweden
, where he again tried his hand at farming. His aristocratic family found his alcoholism and disorderly life unacceptable and had him declared officially unfit to manage his life, and in 1897 he was placed under the care of a guardian. Regardless of this injunction, he went abroad again and lived in Australia
and, possibly, America, earning a living through sundry occupations. He turned up in London
in the autumn of 1907 and returned to Sweden
in early 1908. In the autumn of the same year he was taken into a lunatic asylum in Stockholm
, and in February 1909 he was moved to the asylum of St. Lars in Lund
, where he spent the rest of his life. He never married.
. He began as a conservative and patriotic writer of verses, commentaries, and translations in local daily newspapers; but through his reading of, among others, the English
socialist Robert Blatchford
, he gradually adopted a more liberal and even radical attitude. Soon he was attracted by mysticism, first of all by Emanuel Swedenborg
, whose works he started to translate. Then he turned to the Christian
quietism and mysticism of Jakob Böhme
, who remained one of his main inspirations. In this context he resumed his Persian
studies and also started to learn Hebrew. Against all odds, with repeated lapses into alcoholism and deep depressions, he began a new career as an author and translator. His first publication (Uppsala
, 1913) was a Swedish
translation of an English
work by Alexander Whyte
on Jakob Böhme
. In 1918 two volumes of translations from works by Böhme appeared in print, and the same year saw his first publication of a Swedish
translation from Persian, the Bustan of Sa'di
, possibly first encountered by him when he was preparing for his Persian examination in India
some thirty years earlier. It was the first in a long series of Persian
translations of classical Persian literature by his hand.
In the period 1918-43 he published no less than 23 volumes, altogether more than 8000 pages, of such translations. After the Golestan came an anthology of robaiyyat and mathnawiyyat, then Shabestari's Golshan-e raz, the Robaiyyyat of Khayyam
, an abridged version of Sana'i's Hadiqat-al-haqiqa and the Anwar-e sohayli of Wa'ez Kashefi. However, the greatest achievement of Hermelin was his translation of works by Farid al-din 'Attar and Jalal-al-Din Rumi. Both Farid al-din 'Attar's Pand-nama and his Manteq al-tayr appeared in print in 1929, his Tazkerat al-awlia in four volumes in 1931-43, and the Masnawi of Jalal al-Din Rumi in six volumes in 1933-39. In between he also published translations of excerpts from the Shah-nama and the full texts of the Kalila o Demna and Nizami's Eskandar-nama.
Thanks to Hermelin's prodigious output, there were already in the 1940s more translations of classical Persian literature available in Swedish
than in most other Europe
an languages. The impact of these translations was, however, fairly limited. As a patient in a lunatic asylum, he remained a marginal figure, and most of his translations were printed privately, paid for by the family. Furthermore, he had an old-fashioned, and at times even odd and idiosyncratic, style in Swedish. He made liberal use of capitals for emphasis and excelled in some quasi-etymological erroneous conjectures (such as substituting 'Omr ("life") for 'Omar Khayyam
). On the whole however, his translations are reliable and exact, only occasionally misinterpreting phraseology not easily found in the standard works of reference available to him (Salemann-Zhukovski's Grammar and Fracsis Steingass's Dictionary, etc.). At times his style acquires a strong and original, even prophetic, ring that made it especially attractive to poets and writers, such as Vilhelm Ekelund
, Hjalmar Gullberg
and Gunnar Ekelöf
. Similarly, the very personal kind of mysticism that he developed through the years has had more impact as a literary model than as an exegesis of Sufism
. His work strikes a grandiose but solitary chord in Swedish writing and Persian
scholarship of the 20th century.
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
author and prolific translator of Persian
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
works of literature.
Biography
Hermelin was born into an aristocratic family in Svanshals, Ödeshög MunicipalityÖdeshög Municipality
Ödeshög Municipality is a municipality in Östergötland County, Sweden. The seat is situated in the small town of Ödeshög.The coat of arms was created in 1972 at the time the modern municipalities of Sweden were created...
, Östergötland County
Östergötland County
Östergötland County is a county or län in southeastern Sweden. It borders the counties of Kalmar to the southeast, Jönköping to the southwest, Västra Götaland to the west, Örebro to the northwest, Södermanland to the northeast, and the Baltic Sea to the east.Östergötland County has a population of...
and had a traditional education, at the end of which he spent a couple of years at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Uppsala
Uppsala
- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
, which he left without taking a degree. Already at this stage he seems to have developed a taste for alcohol, which later became an addiction, with drastic life-long consequences. After an unsuccessful attempt at farming on a family estate, he began a wandering life abroad. In 1883 he went to the United States and eked out a living as a teacher, a carpenter, and a soldier, before returning to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in 1885. In 1886 he traveled to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and joined the British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
army as a soldier in the Middlesex Regiment (under the name of Thomas Edward Hallan). He went with his regiment to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in the following year. However, his army career in India proved a failure. He was much troubled by disease, and by then his drinking had developed into full-blown alcoholism, possibly in combination with the use of narcotic drugs. Nevertheless, he spent time on language studies, obviously in preparation for one of the language examinations that formed part of the British administrative system in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He states that he learnt Hindustani
Hindustani language
Hindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
(i.e., Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
) and also started to learn Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
. There is, however, no record showing that he had passed any examination in these subjects. In later years he occasionally referred to his India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n "Monshi," and it is also likely that he had his first encounters with Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
at that time. In April 1893 he was finally discharged from the army "with ignominy," i.e., for disciplinary reasons. After that he became an even more intrepid traveler, going to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and America
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
(including Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
) and then back to Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, where he again tried his hand at farming. His aristocratic family found his alcoholism and disorderly life unacceptable and had him declared officially unfit to manage his life, and in 1897 he was placed under the care of a guardian. Regardless of this injunction, he went abroad again and lived in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and, possibly, America, earning a living through sundry occupations. He turned up in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in the autumn of 1907 and returned to Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
in early 1908. In the autumn of the same year he was taken into a lunatic asylum in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, and in February 1909 he was moved to the asylum of St. Lars in Lund
Lund
-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...
, where he spent the rest of his life. He never married.
Writing works
There is no concrete evidence of any literary production from his years of travel, but he turned to reading and writing when he was confined to the asylum in LundLund
-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...
. He began as a conservative and patriotic writer of verses, commentaries, and translations in local daily newspapers; but through his reading of, among others, the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
socialist Robert Blatchford
Robert Blatchford
Robert Peel Glanville Blatchford was a socialist campaigner, journalist and author in the United Kingdom. He was a prominent atheist and opponent of eugenics. He was also an English patriot...
, he gradually adopted a more liberal and even radical attitude. Soon he was attracted by mysticism, first of all by Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg
was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. He has been termed a Christian mystic by some sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica online version, and the Encyclopedia of Religion , which starts its article with the description that he was a "Swedish scientist and mystic." Others...
, whose works he started to translate. Then he turned to the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
quietism and mysticism of Jakob Böhme
Jakob Böhme
Jakob Böhme was a German Christian mystic and theologian. He is considered an original thinker within the Lutheran tradition...
, who remained one of his main inspirations. In this context he resumed his Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
studies and also started to learn Hebrew. Against all odds, with repeated lapses into alcoholism and deep depressions, he began a new career as an author and translator. His first publication (Uppsala
Uppsala
- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
, 1913) was a Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
translation of an English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
work by Alexander Whyte
Alexander Whyte
Alexander Whyte was a Scottish divine. He was born at Kirriemuir in Forfarshire and educated at the University of Aberdeen and at New College, Edinburgh....
on Jakob Böhme
Jakob Böhme
Jakob Böhme was a German Christian mystic and theologian. He is considered an original thinker within the Lutheran tradition...
. In 1918 two volumes of translations from works by Böhme appeared in print, and the same year saw his first publication of a Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
translation from Persian, the Bustan of Sa'di
Saadi (poet)
Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī better known by his pen-name as Saʿdī or, simply, Saadi, was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is not only famous in Persian-speaking countries, but he has also been quoted in western sources...
, possibly first encountered by him when he was preparing for his Persian examination in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
some thirty years earlier. It was the first in a long series of Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
translations of classical Persian literature by his hand.
In the period 1918-43 he published no less than 23 volumes, altogether more than 8000 pages, of such translations. After the Golestan came an anthology of robaiyyat and mathnawiyyat, then Shabestari's Golshan-e raz, the Robaiyyyat of Khayyam
Khayyam
Omar Khayyam was a Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher and astronomer.Omar Khayyam or Khayyam or may also refer to:* Khayyam, Iran* Mohammed Zahur Khayyam , commonly credited as 'Khayaam', Indian music composer...
, an abridged version of Sana'i's Hadiqat-al-haqiqa and the Anwar-e sohayli of Wa'ez Kashefi. However, the greatest achievement of Hermelin was his translation of works by Farid al-din 'Attar and Jalal-al-Din Rumi. Both Farid al-din 'Attar's Pand-nama and his Manteq al-tayr appeared in print in 1929, his Tazkerat al-awlia in four volumes in 1931-43, and the Masnawi of Jalal al-Din Rumi in six volumes in 1933-39. In between he also published translations of excerpts from the Shah-nama and the full texts of the Kalila o Demna and Nizami's Eskandar-nama.
Thanks to Hermelin's prodigious output, there were already in the 1940s more translations of classical Persian literature available in Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
than in most other Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an languages. The impact of these translations was, however, fairly limited. As a patient in a lunatic asylum, he remained a marginal figure, and most of his translations were printed privately, paid for by the family. Furthermore, he had an old-fashioned, and at times even odd and idiosyncratic, style in Swedish. He made liberal use of capitals for emphasis and excelled in some quasi-etymological erroneous conjectures (such as substituting 'Omr ("life") for 'Omar Khayyam
Khayyam
Omar Khayyam was a Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher and astronomer.Omar Khayyam or Khayyam or may also refer to:* Khayyam, Iran* Mohammed Zahur Khayyam , commonly credited as 'Khayaam', Indian music composer...
). On the whole however, his translations are reliable and exact, only occasionally misinterpreting phraseology not easily found in the standard works of reference available to him (Salemann-Zhukovski's Grammar and Fracsis Steingass's Dictionary, etc.). At times his style acquires a strong and original, even prophetic, ring that made it especially attractive to poets and writers, such as Vilhelm Ekelund
Vilhelm Ekelund
Vilhelm Ekelund was a Swedish poet.The works of Ekelund were influenced by Friedrich Hölderlin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Emanuel Swedenborg...
, Hjalmar Gullberg
Hjalmar Gullberg
Hjalmar Gullberg was a Swedish writer, poet and translator of Greek drama into Swedish.Gullberg was born in Malmö, Skåne. As a student at Lund University, he was the editor of the student magazine Lundagård. He was the manager of the Swedish Radio Theatre 1936-1950...
and Gunnar Ekelöf
Gunnar Ekelöf
Gunnar Ekelöf was a Swedish poet and writer. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1958. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by Uppsala University in 1958...
. Similarly, the very personal kind of mysticism that he developed through the years has had more impact as a literary model than as an exegesis of Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
. His work strikes a grandiose but solitary chord in Swedish writing and Persian
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
scholarship of the 20th century.