Friedrich von Bodenstedt

Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt (April 22, 1819 – April 19, 1892) was a German author.

Bodenstedt was born at Peine, in the Kingdom of Hanover. He was trained as a merchant in Braunschweig and studied in Göttingen, Munich and Berlin.

His career was determined by his engagement in 1841 as tutor in the family of Prince Gallitzin at Moscow, where he gained a thorough knowledge of Russian. This led to his appointment in 1844 as the head of a public school at Tiflis, Governorate of Tiflis (present-day Georgia).

He took the opportunity of his proximity to Persia to study Persian literature, and translate and publish in 1851 a volume of poetry under the fanciful title, Die Lieder des Mirza Schaffy (English trans. by Elsa D'Esterre-Keeling 1880). The success of this work can only be compared with that of Edward FitzGerald's Omar Khayyám, produced in somewhat similar circumstances, but differed from it in being immediate. It has gone through 160 editions in Germany, and has been translated into almost all literary languages. The celebrity is not undeserved, for although Bodenstedt does not attain the poetical elevation of FitzGerald, his translation conveys a view of life which is wider, more cheerful and more sane, while the execution is a model of grace.

Though he claimed that the volume was his own poetry published under oriental disguise to gain popularity, it has been argued that the volume was a successful translation of the Persian and Azeri poems of an Azeri poet, and a known acquaintance of his, Mirza Shafi Vazeh.

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