Eric Axel Hermelin, Baron Hermelin (June 22, 1860 – November 8, 1944) was a
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
author and prolific translator of
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
works of literature.
Biography
Hermelin was born into an aristocratic family in Svanshals,
Ödeshög Municipality
Ödeshög Municipality (''Ödeshögs kommun'') 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 crea ...
,
Östergötland County
Östergötland County ( sv, Östergötlands län) is a county or '' län'' in southeastern Sweden. It has land borders with the counties of Kalmar to the southeast, Jönköping to the southwest, Örebro to the northwest, and Södermanland to the ...
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 (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Located north of the c ...
, 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 lifelong 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 is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
in 1885. In 1886, he traveled to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and joined the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
army as a soldier in the Middlesex Regiment (under the name of
Thomas Edward Hallan). He went with his regiment to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
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, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. He states that he learnt
Hindustani (i.e.,
) and also started to learn
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
. 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, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
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
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
America (including
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
) 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
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
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.
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
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
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
socialist
Robert Blatchford
Robert Peel Glanville Blatchford (17 March 1851 – 17 December 1943) was an English socialist campaigner, journalist, and author in the United Kingdom. He was also noted as a prominent atheist, nationalist and opponent of eugenics. In the early ...
, he gradually adopted a more liberal and even radical attitude. Soon he was attracted by mysticism, first of all by
Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758).
Swedenborg had a ...
, 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
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
studies and also started to learn
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
. 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 (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Located north of the c ...
, 1913) was a
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
translation of an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
work by
Alexander Whyte
''For the British colonial administrator, see Alexander Frederick Whyte''
Rev Alexander Whyte D.D.,LL.D. (13 January 18366 January 1921) was a Scottish divine. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1898.
...
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
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
translation from Persian, the ''Bustan'' of
Sa'di, possibly first encountered by him when he was preparing for his Persian examination in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
some thirty years earlier. It was the first in a long series of
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
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
Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, ...
, an abridged version of
Sana'i's ''
Hadiqat al Haqiqa
Mathnawi Hadiqat al Haqiqa va Shari'at al-Tariqah ( ar, حديقة الحقيقة وشريعة الطريقة, lit=The Garden of Truth and The Path to Trek) or Elahi Nameh ( fa, الهی نامه, lit=Treatise to Theology) is an early Sufi book o ...
'' 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
Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī ( fa, جلالالدین محمد رومی), also known as Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (), Mevlânâ/Mawlānā ( fa, مولانا, lit= our master) and Mevlevî/Mawlawī ( fa, مولوی, lit= my ma ...
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 or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
than in most other
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
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
Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, ...
). 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
Francis Joseph Steingass
Francis Joseph Steingass (March 16, 1825, Frankfurt am Main – January 1903) was a British linguist and orientalist of German Jewish descent.
Biography
Steingass completed his education, including a Ph.D., in Munich, Germany. Later, he was ...
'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 (October 14, 1880 – September 3, 1949) was a Swedish poet.
Career
The works of Ekelund were influenced by Friedrich Hölderlin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Emanuel Swedenborg. His early career was lyrical, and though not widely re ...
,
Hjalmar Gullberg
Hjalmar Gullberg (30 May 1898 – 19 July 1961) was a Swedish poet and translator.
Career
Gullberg was born in Malmö, Scania. As a student at Lund University, he was the editor of the student magazine Lundagård. He was the manager of t ...
and
Gunnar Ekelöf
Bengt Gunnar Ekelöf (15 September 1907, in Stockholm – 16 March 1968, in Sigtuna) was a Swedish poet and writer. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1958 and was 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. His work strikes a grandiose but solitary chord in Swedish writing and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
scholarship of the 20th century.
In 1943 Eric Hermelin received the
Imperial Order of the Lion and the Sun from Masud Ansari, the representative of the Shah of Iran,
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in
Stockholm.
Film about Eric Hermelin
In 2018
Swedish Television
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
program "K Special" broadcast a one hour film on Eric Hermelin by the
Swedish-Iranian film director Ali Boriri. The film entitled "Sufismen och Eric Hermelin" explores Hermelin's biography, translations of
Persian literature
Persian literature ( fa, ادبیات فارسی, Adabiyâte fârsi, ) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources h ...
as well as his views on literature, religion and politics, and contains interviews with
Carl-Göran Ekerwald,
Ashk Dahlén
Ashk Peter Dahlén (born 3 June 1972 in Tafresh, Iran) is a Swedish-Iranian scholar, linguist, Iranologist, Associate Professor (docent) in Persian language at Uppsala University, and translator of classical Persian literature. He is quadrilin ...
, Johan Hermelin och
Marika Lagercrantz
Marika Karin Louise Lagercrantz (born 12 July 1954) is a Swedish actress. Since 2011, she has been Sweden's cultural attaché at the Berlin embassy in Germany.
Lagercrantz was born in Solna. She is the daughter of Olof Lagercrantz, granddaught ...
.
[https://www.svtplay.se/video/18047003/sufismen-och-eric-hermelin Eric Hermelin och sufismen, SVT Play]
See also
*
Persian literature
Persian literature ( fa, ادبیات فارسی, Adabiyâte fârsi, ) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources h ...
*
Sufism
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hermelin, Eric
1860 births
1944 deaths
People from Ödeshög Municipality
Swedish-language writers
Swedish nobility
Translators from Persian
Scholars of Sufism
Iranologists