From Saadi's Boustan to Maurice Barrès's Un jardin sur l Oronte

Maurice Barrès is one of the great authors of the first half of the twentieth century who was familiar with the literature of the Orient, and more particularly, with Persian literature which influenced him deeply. This inclination toward such arts and literature began from childhood when he played with Iranian miniatured boxes, covered with the images of gardens and grass, nightingales and flowers, the images becoming rooted deeply in his soul. In youth, an inner desire was awakened in him and led him to reading the great masters of Persian literature. The early years of the twentieth century witnessed a revival of the French readers’ interest in Iranian arts, and hence their renewed interest in Persian literature. As a result, a huge volume of books including anthologies, translations, criticism, and literary essays and articles were published and became available to the French literary circles and intellectuals. On the other hand, Barrès friendship with authors and poets like Anna de Noailles, Mrs. Bibesco, Henry de Régnier and others who were themselves familiar with Persian literature, and his relationship with well-known contemporary orientalists enabled him to become familiar with great Iranian poets, and particularly with Saadi, much more deeply. In the years following World War I, when he detached himself from political and patriotic writings and decided to focus on pure literature, his memories and studies of the Sheikh of Shiraz and other great masters of Persian literature came to his aid. He had often smelled the flowers of Saadi’s Gulestan, and had heard the mystical melodies of Boustan, and now found the opportunity to respond to his inner call