エマスンの「ブラーマ」試論

その源泉と成立過程を中心にして

抄録

　Various interpretations have been made on Emerson’s “Brahma ” by American and foreign scholars. Interesting studies of the poem as seen through Eastern eyes have also recently appeared ; such as Professor Leyla Goren’s The Elements of Brahmanism in the Transcendentalism of Emerson and Professor K. R. Chandrasekharan’s “Emerson’s ‘Brahma’: An Indian Interpretation ” (NEQ, Vol. XXXIII, No. 4). Although these articles, especially the latter, help us greatly to interpret Emerson’s mystical poem, the sources of the poem yet seem to have a deeper meaning. In dealing with the material sources, Professor Goren interprets chiefly based upon Dr. Paramananda’s explanation, and Professor Chandrasekharan, quoting passages parallelled to The Bhagavad Geeta and The Upanishads, neglects entirely his Journals, which the poet himself called his “ Savings Bank. ” It is on this pojnt that there is something more to be desired,

　In November of 1857, Emerson cotributed “ Brahma ”, together with three other poems, to the first issue of the Atlantic Monthly. The poem, however, differs somewhat from that of his Journals of the year before, which bears the title of “ The Song of the Soul (BRAHMA) ”. It has eight extracts from The Upanishads, suggestive of the material sources of the poem. Five passages, placed before the original poem, exracted from the Śvetāśvatara, VI, 20 and II, i,10； the Iśa, 4 and 5; and others after it from the Kena I, 7 and 6, and the Katha I, ii, 8, respectively. Also, it must be noted here that they are followed by the passage，“ A grander legend than Western literature contains is the story of Nachiketas... ” The famous passages which correspond to the first two lines in the opening stanza of “ Brahma ” are, for some reason or other, omitted in his Journals and in “ Immortality ” , while in the essay the passages before and after the portion are nearly faithfully quoted from “ The Story of Nachiketas ” in the Katha Upanishad. So far as there is a coherent chronological sequence in them, Emerson might have derived the immediate source of the poem from the Katha and Iśa Upanishads . Bearing these considerations in mind, the present article is concerned primarily with the relation of “ Brahma ” to The Upanishads and with its poetic thought. We have first attempted to describe how Emerson composed the final form of his poem, chiefly based upon his journals and letters. And the final chapter undertakes to interpret the poem.