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140 9 Hamann, Goethe, and the West-Eastern Divan Kamaal Haque It has long become a commonplace in scholarship on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) that he was influenced by the writings of Johann Georg Hamann, though critics differ as to what extent. Indeed, the Swiss theologian and physiognomist Johann Caspar Lavater reports that, in 1774, the young Goethe told him “Hamann was the author from whom he learned the most.”1 Later, in the third part of his autobiographyPoetry and Truth (Dichtung und Wahrheit), published in 1814, Goethe provided his well-known summation of Hamann’s thought. Declaring him a “worthy , influential” man, Goethe then writes: “The principle to which all of Hamann’s pronouncements can be ascribed is this: ‘Everything that man undertakes to perform, be it brought forth by deed or word or otherwise , must emanate from complete, unified powers. Everything that is single is reprehensible.’ A masterful maxim, but difficult to adhere to!”2 Although the outlines of Goethe’s interest in and admiration for Hamann are well known, the extent of this influence, particularly upon the later Goethe, has often been overlooked. In what follows, I focus on that influence in Goethe’s 1819 collection of Persian-inspired poetry, the West-Eastern Divan (West-östlicher Divan). This influence has at times been noted in passing, but not investigated in depth before. Before turning to Hamann’s influence on Goethe’s Divan, a brief overview of theWest-Eastern Divan is in order for readers who may be unfamiliar with it. In 1814, Goethe received as a gift from his publisher the German translation of a book of poems by the great fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz. So taken with these poems, and disillusioned with Europe as a result of the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars, Goethe decided to write his own Divan (in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish, a “collection ,” often of poems, not a couch!). In addition to the poems, Goethe appended the “Noten und Abhandlungen zum besseren Verständnis” (“Notes and Treatises for Better Understanding”), a prose appendix 141 H A M A N N , G O E T H E , A N D T H E W E S T - E A S T E R N D I V A N dealing with the history and culture of what in German is called “der Orient,” and in English is generally called the Middle East. Hamann’s influence can be detected in both the poems and the prose of the WestEastern Divan. The most obvious influence upon Goethe’s Divan can be found at the end of the first letter from the Cloverleaf of Hellenistic Letters (Kleeblatt Hellenistischer Briefe), where Hamann relates the story of Misri Effendi , whose poems were to be judged by a mufti (religious judge), as recounted by Dimitirie Cantemir in his history of the Ottoman Empire (Henkel, 467–68). Because of Misri Effendi’s prominence, Hamann tells us: “The mufti did not dare to pass judgment on his verses and is said to have declared, ‘The interpretation and meaning of them is known to none but God and Misri’—The mufti also ordered his poetry to be collected in a volume, in order to examine it. He read it, committed it to the flames, and passed this fatwa: ‘Whoever speaks and believes as Misri Effendi, ought to be burnt, except Misri Effendi alone: for no fatwa can be passed upon those that are possessed of Enthusiasm.’”3 Goethe used this anecdote in his poem “Fetwa” (“Fatwa”) in the Divan: Der Mufti las des Misri Gedichte, Eins nach dem andern, alle zusammen, Und wohlbedächtig warf sie in den Flammen, Das schöngeschriebne Buch, es ging zunichte. Verbrannt sei jeder, sprach der hohe Richter, Wer spricht und glaubt wie Misri – er allein Sei ausgenommen von des Feuers Pein: Denn Allah gab die Gabe jedem Dichter. Misbraucht er sie im Wandel seiner Sünden, So seh er zu mit Gott sich abzufinden. The mufti read Misri’s poems One after the other, all together, And, considering them carefully, threw them into the flames, The beautifully written book, it was annihilated. The high judge spoke: burned to death should everyone be, Who speaks and thinks like Misri—he alone Be excepted from the fire’s torment: For Allah gave the talent to each poet. If he misuses it in the course of his sins, He will have to come to terms with God. (MA 11.1.2:25) [3.147.104.248...

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