"Emerson in Iran offers the first full-length study of Persian influence in the work of the seminal American poet, philosopher, and translator. Extending the current trend in transnational studies back to the figural origins of both the United States and Iran, insightful comparative readings of Platonism and Sufi mysticism help explain how Emerson managed to reconcile through poetry two countries so seemingly different in religion, philosophy, and politics. Tracking Emerson's various rhetorical strategies through his own interrogation of language and critical readings of literature exposes what can be considered the sustained development of a latent but considerable translation theory. Emerson's practical application of such a theory in his approach to Hafez and Sa'di further demonstrates the extent to which Persian poetry becomes generative in his own nineteenth century, and how such formative effects continue into America's contemporary verse tradition"--