West-Eastern Divan

Complete, annotated new translation (bilingual edition)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Eric Ormsby

• Publisher: Gingko
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781909942554, 9781909942240
• eBook ISBN: 9781909942417
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

In 1814, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe read the poems of the great fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz in a newly published translation by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall. For Goethe, the book was a revelation. He felt a deep connection with Hafiz and Persian poetic traditions, and was immediately inspired to create his own West-Eastern Divan as a lyrical conversation between the poetry and history of his native Germany and that of Persia. The resulting collection engages with the idea of the other and unearths lyrical connections between cultures.
 
The West-Eastern Divan is one of the world's great works of literature, an inspired masterpiece, and a poetic linking of European and Persian traditions. This new bilingual edition expertly presents the wit, intelligence, humor, and technical mastery of the poetry in Goethe's Divan. In order to preserve the work's original power, Eric Ormsby has created this translation in clear contemporary prose rather than in rhymed verse, which tends to obscure the works sharpness. This edition is also accompanied by explanatory notes of the verse in German and in English and a translation of Goethe's own commentary, the "Notes and Essays for a Better Understanding of the West-Eastern Divan." This edition not only bring this classic collection to English-language readers, but also, at a time of renewed Western unease about the other, to open up the rich cultural world of Islam.

WEST-EASTERN DIVAN

Moganni Nameh

BUCH DES SÄNGER*

THE BOOK OF THE SINGER

Zwanzig Jahre ließ ich gehn

Und genoß, was mir beschieden;

Eine Reihe, völlig schön,

Wie die Zeit der Barmekiden.^†, ^‡

I let twenty years pass by and

enjoyed what was granted me;

an entire sequence, utterly lovely,

as in the days of the Barmakids.

1

Hegire*

Nord und West und Süd zersplittern,

Throne bersten, Reiche zittern,

Flüchte du, im reinen Osten

Patriarchenluft zu kosten,

Unter Lieben, Trinken, Singen,

Soll dich Chisers Quell verjüngen.

Dort, im Reinen und im Rechten,

Will ich menschlichen Geschlechten

In des Ursprungs Tiefe dringen,

Wo sie noch von Gott empfingen

Himmelslehr’ in Erdesprachen,

Und sich nicht den Kopf zerbrachen.

Wo sie Väter hoch verehrten,

Jeden fremden Dienst^† verwehrten;

Will mich freun der Jugendschranke:^‡

Glaube weit, eng der Gedanke,

Wie das Wort so wichtig dort war,

Weil es ein gesprochen Wort war.

1

Hegira

North and West and South splinter apart,¹ thrones explode, kingdoms tremble: take flight to the pure East to taste the air of the patriarchs! Amidst loving, drinking, singing, Khidr’s spring² will make you young again.

There, in purity and righteousness³ I’ll thrust through human generations down to the depths of origin, where they still took heaven’s teachings⁴ straight from God, in earthly languages, and didn’t wrack their brains.

Where they revered their fathers highly, had no use for foreign ways. I will take my pleasure in the youngest ages: broad the belief, narrow the thought, for the word was so important there because it was a spoken word.⁵

Will mich unter Hirten mischen,

An Oasen mich erfrischen,

Wenn mit Caravanen wandle,

Schawl,* Caffee und Moschus handle.

Jeden Pfad will ich betreten

Von der Wüste zu den Städten.

Bösen Felsweg auf und nieder

Trösten Hafis deine Lieder,

Wenn der Führer mit Entzücken,

Von des Maulthiers hohem Rücken,

Singt, die Sterne zu erwecken,

Und die Räuber zu erschrecken.

Will in Bädern und in Schenken

Heil’ger Hafis dein gedenken,

Wenn den Schleyer Liebchen lüftet,

Schüttelnd Ambralocken düftet.

Ja des Dichters Liebeflüstern

Mache selbst die Huris lüstern.

Wolltet ihr ihm dies beneiden,

Oder etwa gar verleiden;

Wisset nur, daß Dichterworte

Um des Paradieses Pforte

Immer leise klopfend schweben,

Sich erbittend ew’ges Leben.

I will rub shoulders with the shepherds, take my ease at oases, when I wander with the caravans, traffic in shawls, coffee, musk; I’ll tread every path from the desert to the towns.

Up and down on the awful mountain path, your songs, Hafiz, comfort when the guide in rapture sings from the mule’s tall back⁶ to wake up the stars and scare robbers off.

In bath-houses and in taverns, Holy Hafiz,⁷ I’ll remember you, when the beloved raises her veil and shaking her amber ringlets suffuses fragrance. Ah, a poet’s whispered endearments make even the houris⁸ lust.

If you mean to envy him for this or even spoil his pleasure, keep in mind that a poet’s words hover, ever softly knocking, around the gates of Paradise, pleading for eternal life.

2

Segenspfänder

Talisman in Carneol

Gläubigen bringt er Glück und Wohl,

Steht er gar auf Onyx Grunde

Küß ihn mit geweihten Munde!

Alles Uebel treibt er fort,

Schützet dich und schützt den Ort:

Wenn das eingegrabne Wort

Allahs Namen rein verkündet,

Dich zu Lieb’ und That entzündet.

Und besonders werden Frauen

Sich am Talisman erbauen.

Amulette sind dergleichen

Auf Papier geschriebne Zeich...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction by Eric Ormsby
• Acknowledgements
• West-Eastern Divan
• Notes and Essays: For a Better Understanding of the West-Eastern Divan
• Appendix: Poems Collected Posthumously
• Index of German titles and first lines
• Index of English titles and first lines