THE INFLUENCE OF HAFIZ ON WESTERN POETRY

This article examines the infl uence of the Persian mystic poet Hafi z on western poets. Interest in Hafi z started in England in the eighteenth century with the translations of Sir William Jones. In the nineteenth century, the German translation of Baron von Hammer-Purgstall inspired Goethe to create his masterpiece Westöstliche Divan (West-Eastern Divan). The poetry of Hafi z evoked such passion in Goethe that he referred to him as ‘Saint Hafi z ’ and ‘Celestial Friend’. Inspired by Westöstliche Divan, a number of German poets including Rückert and Platen composed volumes of poetry on the model of ghazal, the popular poetic form perfected by Hafi z in Persian literature. Prominent among the German thinkers infl uenced and fascinated by Hafi z was Friedrich Nietzsche who repeatedly mentioned him in his works. The infl uence of Hafi z stretched to America in 1838 when Ralph Waldo Emerson read Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan. In Hafi z, Emerson found a man who derived pleasure in the very elements which others found mean. Under the infl uence of Hafi z’s Saki-nameh or the Book of Wine, he created his fi nest poem Bacchus which, according to Harold Bloom, set the terms for the dialectic of American poetry