”Jag har erfarit Influxus ...” : en komparativ analys av Eric Hermelins litterära förhållningssätt till Emanuel Swedenborg

Sammanfattning: Eric Hermelin, the translator and mystic who, while being incarcerated at a mental institution outside Lund in Sweden, managed to write himself into the history of literature by translating the Great Persian sufi poets of the Middle Ages, Rumi, Attar and Sadi, to name a few. Amongst his other translations we find the native Emanuel Swedenborg who will be the focus of this study.The purpose for this study is to look upon how the teachings of Swedenborg affected Hermelin through a comparative analysis where the translations of Hermelin will play a key role. By comparing them to the original texts of both Swedenborg and the Persian poets and by putting Hermelin in context with his times we hope to find out in what way Hermelin related to Swedenborg.Analysis is centered around three concepts; the Personality, the Correspondence and Influxus, which mirrors the Hermelin focus regarding Swedenborg. The study shows that Swedenborg is central to Hermelin in helping him finding strength for his massive work. Hermelin knows Influxus by experience and he seems well aware of the mystic and esoteric context in which Swedenborg belongs where the Persian poets also plays an important part. In a way Hermelin relate Swedenborg to the Persian poets using the teachings of Swedenborg as an instrument to point out the similarities of content.