Self-Reliance, Translated

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance Translated Into Modern English

By: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

This very small book is Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, Self-Reliance, translated into modern English by me, Adam Khan. When I tell people about translating Emerson, the first thing people always ask me is, “Why would his work need to be ‘translated?’ After all, he lived a fairly short time ago and he spoke English.” I’ve found when I share quotes from Emerson, it becomes clear why a translation might be helpful. For example, this is from the original Self-Reliance: “As soon as he has once acted or spoken with éclat he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds, whose affections must now enter into his account. There is no Lethe for this. Ah, that he could pass again into his neutral, godlike independence! Who can thus lose all pledge and, having observed, observe again from the same unaffected, unbiased, unbribable, unaffrighted innocence, must always be formidable, must always engage the poet’s and the man’s regards.” I enjoy Emerson’s prose. But it took some time and I had to look up a few words before I really understood what he was saying in that paragraph. My little "translation" is just something that helps. Hopefully, when you're done, you can go back and read Emerson's original essay and understand it better.