Goethe is an example. His spiritual attraction to the East was strengthened not only by his literary encounters but also by the upheavals of nineteenth-century Europe
- Literature and the arts transcend borders without the need for visas, becoming a universal language that resonates with peoples and imparts its essence to the thoughts of its readers.
Souad Khalil | Libya
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German poet, was born in Frankfurt on the River Main on August 28, 1749. He is regarded as one of the German geniuses immortalized by history through the vast literary and scientific legacy he left behind—works that continue to be explored and studied by scholars, writers, critics, and readers alike, even more than two centuries after their publication. Goethe’s contributions spanned multiple genres: he wrote novels, composed the monumental play Faust—considered his greatest literary achievement—and created poetry of rare depth and beauty. Among his poetic works, the West–Eastern Divan (West-östlicher Divan) stands out as one of his most significant creations.
Goethe’s poetry is renowned for its passionate intensity, reflecting both his personal experiences and those of others, whether contemporaries or figures from distant centuries whose lives he came to know through his extensive reading. His early fascination with the East began through his study of the Bible and Hebrew, later expanding to a translated version of the Qur’an, and subsequently to Arabic literature—especially pre-Islamic poetry and the celebrated Mu‘allaqāt (The Hanging Odes), which he first encountered in Sir William Jones’s English translation. He then turned to Persian and Indian literature, where he found new worlds of inspiration.
A decisive moment in Goethe’s engagement with the East came through Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall’s brilliant German translation of the works of Hafez, the Persian master of lyric poetry. This translation ignited Goethe’s passion for the Islamic East and inspired him to compose his own West–Eastern Divan. Goethe was also drawn to the traditions of the Bedouin Arabs, captivated by their poetry and oral histories. The Mu‘allaqāt, as some of the oldest poetic testaments to Bedouin life, profoundly impressed him. Out of admiration for this heritage, Goethe translated into German the Mu‘allaqa of Imru’ al-Qais, a project he announced in a letter to his friend Karl Knebel on November 14, 1782.
In that letter, Goethe wrote:
“Götz, who shares my great passion for Arabic poetry, has published the Mu‘allaqāt—the seven long poems of the ancient Arab poets—in an English translation. We have taken it upon ourselves to render these works into German, so that the German people may also acquaint themselves with them. Soon, this translation will be in your hands.”
Thus Goethe set himself, with great resolve, to the translation of Imru’ al-Qais’s ode, managing to complete a substantial portion of it. His immersion in Hammer’s works also inspired him to begin a dramatic poem on the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), though he left it unfinished. Still, his intent reveals how deeply he was influenced by Eastern themes.
Goethe’s engagement with the East did not occur in isolation; it unfolded within a broader cultural movement shaped by Orientalist scholars and translators. In Vienna, Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall was tirelessly unearthing and presenting the treasures of the East to the German-speaking world. Earlier, German Orientalists such as Simon Foyle had already translated al-Zamakhshari’s Necklaces of Gold, One Thousand and One Nights, and the prophetic biographies of Ibn Hisham and Ibn Ishaq, along with other Islamic and Arabic works. These efforts paved the way for German writers and intellectuals to encounter the wealth of Arab-Islamic heritage at a time when Europe’s gaze was increasingly drawn toward the East.
The Iraqi scholar Walid al-Zaidi, in his study on Goethe, observed:
“The Orientalist movement was particularly active during this period, closely tied to Europe’s colonial ambitions in the East. Orientalist writings flourished across diverse fields—history, society, religion, literature, and more.”
Interestingly, Muslim intellectuals welcomed this exchange, responding with great interest to the empathy they found among German thinkers. For their part, German intellectuals had shown a unique openness to Islamic civilization for more than three centuries. Goethe himself embodied this spirit of understanding. In the West–Eastern Divan, he captured this essence in a line that reads:
“It is sheer madness for every man to impose his opinion in every situation and glorify it.”
Goethe’s spiritual attraction to the East was strengthened not only by his literary encounters but also by the upheavals of nineteenth-century Europe. The unrest and instability of his time made him long for the serenity and harmony he imagined in the East, far removed from war and destruction. His vision of the East became one of peace, clarity, and renewal.
By 1814, the idea of “turning East” had matured in his mind. That year, while serving as Privy Councilor to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Goethe witnessed an episode that left a deep impression on him: a group of Bashkir soldiers, Muslims from southeastern Russia, passed through Weimar during the Napoleonic wars. He attended their prayers in the hall of a Protestant school, an experience that stirred his imagination. To Goethe, the scene evoked the powerful image of Timur and his Muslim armies, and it awakened within him a living sense of the East.
All these factors awakened in him a love for the East and compelled him to engage in the translation movement, drawing from the Arab-Islamic heritage, as well as from India and China, alongside the active interest of Orientalist studies, numerous journals, and research. Likewise, the Romantic Movement, prevalent in his era, encouraged its poets to seek atmospheres far removed from isolation, exploring the new, the strange, and the delightful.
The year 1814 marked a turning point for Goethe towards the East, due to significant military events of that time. It was the era of Napoleon’s star, who, through his long years of destructive wars, had conquered large parts of Europe and the world. Germany was among the first countries to feel the impact of his campaigns by the end of 1812. Goethe admired Napoleon greatly and witnessed his downfall at the famous site of Waterloo, an event that affected him deeply. At that time, Goethe was also experiencing intense psychological turmoil, which he himself described as follows: “I felt a deep necessity to escape from a world full of dangers, threatening me from every side, in secrecy and openly, to live in an imaginary, ideal world, where I could enjoy whatever solace and dreams my strength could sustain.”
In another study by Abdel Azim Mahmoud Hanafi on the influence of Arabic literature in Europe, he writes about Goethe’s poetry influenced by Arabic literature: Goethe, who did not limit himself to reading the Mu‘allaqat through English translations, as mentioned, traveled to the city of Heidelberg, which was renowned at the time for its Oriental studies under the supervision of Professor Blollos. Goethe spent a considerable time with the professor beside the library of the Oriental Studies Department. There, by chance, he came across the German translations by the Orientalist Anton Nieder-Maertman, accompanied by a thorough study of the social and moral conditions of Arabs. This literary work drew him closer to the literary spirit, leaving a clear impact on his own literary output. This influence is not merely evident in his translations of certain Mu‘allaqat poems, but is reflected more profoundly in his own poetry, which we attempt to illustrate here.
Let me weep
Let me weep
As darkness descended with its veil
Upon that endless desert.
Pause, caravans, and you, guides,
Show compassion for the solitary watcher
Who stands alone after the miles separating him from Zuleikha,
Observing those long, winding roads.
Let me weep, for there is no shame in weeping:
How much Achilles wept for his beloved Briseis,
How much Xerxes mourned his defeated army,
How much Alexander lamented his beloved who took her own life.
Let me weep, for tears revive the thirsty earth, granting it freshness and life.
It is evident to the reader that these verses echo the opening lines of the Mu‘allaqat and other Arabic poems. The poet stands alone in the desert, night has drawn its curtain over him, pausing to contemplate life, while the caravans serve as witnesses to his mourning. Perhaps society deemed weeping inappropriate for men, yet he believed that tears were justified in moments of sorrowful farewell. Like rain on parched land, tears bring life through their nurturing flow.
The poet did not artificially construct this scene of farewell; he composed these verses after a brief but beautiful period in 1815 with his beloved Marianne in Heidelberg, knowing he would part from her forever. As Goethe wrote in this farewell poem, he drew inspiration from the Bedouin poets, who were often forced by harsh life circumstances to part from their loved ones. Goethe, admiring these poets and their sincere expression of emotion, sought their inspiration when confronting the separation from his beloved. Consequently, his poetry mirrored the Bedouins, portraying the familiar image of separation—a depiction the ancient Arab poets had long used to convey the harsh experience of parting in the sorrowful heart of the desert. If we attempt to trace the impact of these poetic experiences on Goethe’s verse, we find it evident: the poet imagines himself standing alone in the wilderness, surrounded by darkness.
Returning to what Walid Al-Zaidi wrote about Goethe’s journey—from a troubled, war-torn West to the serene, pure East, still carrying the seeds of humanity in its loftiest sense sought by artists and writers—Goethe described this journey as a migration. It is the title of his 1814 poem, in which he calls for a migration towards the pure and clear East, the land of guides, prophets, and messengers. This poem inaugurated his collection West–Eastern Divan (West-östlicher Divan), called by Goethe Moganni Nameh, adopting a Persian title, in imitation of his favorite poet Hafez al-Shirazi, who had named one of his books similarly. In this poem, Goethe writes:
North, West, and South shatter and scatter;
Thrones are paralyzed, kingdoms tremble and falter
Let us migrate to the East in its purity and clarity,
Where the spirit of the guides and messengers breathes freely.
The lands of the East, rich in ancient civilizations, created a literary heritage that profoundly influenced Arabs initially, and later offered Europeans a luminous window into unfamiliar literature. They immersed themselves in exploring its treasures and literary masterpieces, finding an inexhaustible source of knowledge and wisdom across diverse fields of science and learning.
Dr. Dawood Saloom discusses this in his research titled “The Arab-Islamic Influence in Goethe’s Eastern Divan,” stating that the literary atmosphere prevailing in Europe had discovered the East and its literary treasures as a new source of inspiration, distinct from what Europe inherited from Hellenistic and Roman civilization. The reading of Eastern literature transported the weary Western individual, burdened by civilization, wars, and tragedies, into a romantic world that distanced him from daily life.
During that period, the East was far from the West’s gaze, prompting its writers and poets to delve into its depths and draw from its treasures, focusing on its rich heritage. They found in it a vast world that continuously fed their thoughts and imaginations with all that is delightful and beautiful, drawing inspiration for their literary creations. They embarked on journeys to the East, both real and imaginary, yearning to escape their troubled reality, which was shackled by classical constraints on their feelings and emotions, thus becoming swept up in the wave of Orientalism.
Al-Wati highlights that the West has been significantly influenced by Eastern literature and sciences for a long time. Therefore, he urges readers to explore this fertile world filled with treasures of knowledge and creativity, emphasizing the necessity of delving deeper to acquire this knowledge and unravel mysteries to discover everything that is obscure and unknown to Western minds. He states in his comments within the Eastern-Western Divan: “At a time when our language is infused with much that we borrowed from the East, it is appropriate for us to strive to direct attention to a world from which we have received many great, beautiful, and good things for thousands of years, and we hope every day to gain even more.”
In this context, Dr. B. Faysher, the famous German Orientalist, notes that all genres in German literature contain Eastern motifs, which were prompted by the state of European culture during that Romantic era that attracted writers to the East. Goethe, too, in his aforementioned divan, encourages Orientalism and the learning of Eastern languages to engage with its wonderful literature in its original languages, aiding in a precise understanding and enriching oneself with the treasures of original Eastern literature and other knowledge.
This is clearly reflected in his remark: “If we wish to partake of the production of these outstanding geniuses, we must pursue Orientalism; the East should not come to us.” Who wouldn’t want to explore these treasures in their original source?
Professor Pierre Mormer, a French literature scholar at the Sorbonne, states that the nineteenth century is the age of history. In his view, this century was a meeting point for many sciences, knowledge, and global cultures. It served as a hub for connections between the French Asiatic Society and its counterparts in Calcutta and London, and it was also a center for literary friendships between figures such as Lamartine and Goethe, as well as Carlyle and Goethe, among others.
In his collection titled The Eastern-Western Divan, which was translated into Arabic by Professor Abdul Rahman Badawi, who also commented on it and named it The Eastern Divan of a Western Author, Goethe crowned his literary life with this magnificent poetic work. He began writing it in 1814 and completed it in 1819, drawing inspiration for the poems recorded within from the spirit of the East.
Goethe’s spiritual journey from the West to the East was not merely a natural or superficial trip undertaken by a tourist or traveler for any other purpose; rather, it was a pure spiritual journey and a radical resignation from his Western environment to the atmosphere of the East, which he saw as a means to draw closer to God in its purity, clarity, and majesty. In this sense, in his poem “Migration,” he does not differentiate between his original homeland in the West and his new home in the East, as both remain in the hands of their Creator, God Almighty.
Thus, we find that Goethe, in his orientation toward the East, sought to escape the despair and boredom that dominated the character of Western literature, which had been heavily influenced by the stifling classicism derived from Greek literature—an approach marked by complexity and obscurity in its continuous depiction of the struggles between the divine and the schemes and conspiracies that unfold among them. This was the legacy of Hellenistic civilization, which Goethe and his fellow Romantic writers abandoned.
Goethe was part of a group of German writers who called themselves “The Storm and Stress” (Sturm und Drang), and he was one of the most significant contributors to this movement alongside Friedrich Schiller. They directed their literature in a Romantic direction, embodying a miniature version of the later German Romantic movement. These writers, with Goethe at the forefront, sought to break free from the stagnation and rigidity that pervaded their literary reality across Europe.
Their quest for renewal is evident in the name “Storm and Stress,” which they gave to their association; they could no longer remain under any literary or social organization that constrained their movement, aspirations, and vibrant imaginations. They were in revolt against any organized doctrine. In their fervent drive to shed the shackles of the past, they rejected all manifestations of the status quo. What mattered in life, as in art, was the original, creative genius of the individual, who must be free to express his personal experience spontaneously.
It is therefore not surprising that the “Storm and Stress” movement became known by an alternative name: the Age of Genius.
It is evident that this association, which included a group of Romantic writers, was ignited by Romanticism to prepare to pounce on the elements of stagnation and inertia that prevailed at the time. At the forefront of these writers was Goethe, whose Romantic spirit inspired him with the intellectual strength necessary to compose his works about the East—specifically, the Islamic East.
Goethe’s fascination with Eastern themes not only reflected his desire for renewal but also allowed him to explore new aesthetic and philosophical dimensions that contrasted sharply with the rigidity of contemporary Western literature. This literary pursuit was a significant aspect of his broader journey toward understanding and expressing the complexities of human experience through the lens of Eastern thought and culture.
The Romanticism that swept in with its winds toward Eastern literature added a unique flavor, sweetness, and beauty to Western literature. It strengthened the bonds between East and West, building bridges of trust and understanding between the two. Goethe expressed this sentiment by stating: “Whoever knows himself and others must realize that there is no severance of the bond between the West and the East.”
This acknowledgment of interconnectedness highlights the enriching influence of Eastern thought on Western creativity and underscores the importance of cultural exchange in fostering mutual appreciation and understanding.
The German Orientalist Dr. B. Faysher points to the deep and timeless relationship between the East and the West, which is exemplified by Goethe’s turn toward the East through his *Eastern-Western Divan*. This work had a profound impact on the souls of Eastern people, particularly, and found a response after Goethe’s death from the Muslim scholar Muhammad Iqbal.
Faysher states that this divan, which serves as a beautiful testament to the understanding of Islamic culture from the Western perspective, deserved a response from the East. Muhammad Iqbal, the famous Pakistani poet, provided this response in his book Payam-e-Mashriq (Message of the East) published in 1931, offering a remarkable reply to the Western figure of Goethe. This exchange represents a continuation of a fruitful dialogue between Islamic East and German West, reflecting a rich cultural interaction that transcends time and geography.
Thus, literature and the arts transcend borders without the need for visas, becoming a universal language that resonates with peoples and imparts its essence to the thoughts of its readers. This is the essence of Goethe, who fell in love with the East and became enchanted by its culture and literature. He produced a new form of literature, culminating in his work The Eastern-Western Divan, which he gifted to the Islamic East before his passing.
This act not only solidified his connection to Eastern thought but also exemplified the enduring power of artistic expression to foster understanding and appreciation across cultures.
Read: Poetry between Sender and Receiver
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Souad Khalil, hailing from Libya, is a writer, poet, and translator. She has been writing on culture, literature and other general topics.
