Air and Spirit in Goethe's West-östlicher Divan

Air and Spirit in Goethe's West-östlicher Divan GEORGE F. PETERS In attempting to define what H.H. Schaeder calls "die geheimnisvolle Einheit des Divan" x scholars have repeatedly referred to an elusive ediereality pervading die poetry of the West-östlicher Divan. Gustav Konrad notes a "geheime Aura dieser Dichtung, nennen wir sie den Geist";2 Erich Trunz calls die work "ein geistiger Raum";8 Oskar Loerke states, "Die Magie atmet aus dem Ganzen her, und nur, wer des Ganzen gewärtig bleibt, wird vom vollen Atem des Einzelnen bestrichen";4 Hans-Joachim Weitz perceives the unity of die cycle to be "von atmosphärischer Art";5 Max Kommerell describes the unifying spirit of die Divan in the following terms: "[Der Geist] ist zwischen den Gedichten, vor den Gedichten, über den Gedichten . . . er ist ein Geist der Sinnlichkeit, der Schärfe des Sehens, eine Durchsichtigkeit der Luft . . . immer wieder wird man zu Worten wie 'Luft, Atmosphäre' greifen." * Two concepts which recur in statements concerning the Divan's unity are "Geist" on the one hand and "Atmosphäre," including "Luft," George F. Peters (Associate Professor of German at the University of New Mexico) is currently writing a comparison of the poetry of Goethe and Heine. 1 Goethes Erlebnis des Ostens (Leipzig, 1938), p. 63. '"Form und Geist des West-östlichen Divans," GRM, ????? (1950/51), p. 188. ' Goethe. Gedichte II, Die Fischer Bibliothek der hundert Bücher, No. 100 (Frankfurt and Hamburg, 1963), p. 542. 4 Goethes West-östlicher Divan (Berlin, 1925), p. XVIII. 'Goethe. West-östlicher Divan (Leipzig, 1953), p. 577. ' Gedanken über Gedichte, 2nd. ed. (Frankfurt, 1956), p. 259. 216GOETHE'S WEST-ÖSTUCHER DlVAN "Hauch" and "Atem," on die odier. Frequently die two ideas are brought togedier, as in Kommerell's statement diat die Divan's particular type of spirituality hovers in and around die poems like air or atmosphere. The apparent aim of such metaphors is to characterize die high degree of spirituality contained in many of die Divan poems and, at die same time, to express the intuitive feeling on reading the Divan diat diese poems do, in fact, constitute a cycle, diat diere is a unifying "spirit" which binds diem togedier. Bodi die idea diat die poetry of the Divan is profoundly meaningful in diose areas commonly associated widi die spirit, and diat die work has an inherent structural and diematic unity have been precisely investigated.7 What has not been investigated is die actual body of imagery in die Divan which directly relates to die impression diat diis poetry is somehow ethereal, namely die frequent images pertaining to air. The nouns Luft, Wind, Hauch, and Atem, togedier widi die verbs atmen and hauchen, occur over diirty times in die Divan, frequently in poems of central importance. More significantly, Goedie's usage of diese words encompasses both the concrete, elemental idea of air and die abstract, religious concept of spirit. It is die purpose of die present study to demonstrate that die air imagery itself lends die Divan its pronounced quality of ediereality. The situation widi respect to die interrelating meanings of Geist and Luft is a complex one; historically, die two concepts are inextricably entwined, in tradition and usage, if not in etymology. Geist, like Spiritus, pneuma and ruach, long fluctuated in meaning between die concrete and spiritual. In OHG âtum and geist bodi occur as die equivalent of Spiritus sanctus; by die MHG period die church had firmly settled on geist as die spiritual, âtem die sensuous term. Still in Goedie's time, however, an overlap of meaning persists, as is documented in Grimm's Wörterbuch, where is noted under Geist, "bemerkenswert ist . . . wie die beiden begriffe geist und wind, hauch, luft, jenes auch in der ' For an extensive review of the Divan literature, see Ingeborg Hillmann, Dichtung als Gegenstand der Dichtung (Bonn, 1965), pp. 7-24. ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW217 entwickeltsten geistigen bedeutung, fort und fort mit einander gehen oder sich neu zu einander gesellen." 8 The persistent proximity of Geist to Atem rests in large measure on the Biblical image of die divine essence as breath. Thus Genesis 2:7, "und Gott der Herr blies ihm den lebendigen Odem in seine...