حمیده بهجت

The European authors and thinkers in classic period and particularly Romantic one were searching the root and basis of European culture and languages. The decoding of Sanskrit emphasized the centrality of the Orient for European culture. Goethe, the famous poet and author of Germany, under the influence of this movement and for his own interest, studied the works of orientalists too. Alltough he never went to the Orient, however, the study and survey of the translation the books by the Orient authors and poets, for him, was spiritual travel to the Orient. Particularly, during the study and survey he acquainted with the poeti-cal works of Hafez which exerted a strong influence on him and thus he created an attractive compilation in German language. The West-östlicher Divan of Goethe is the result of his spiritual travel to the Orient and, in effect, it is a description which joins the two poles of world (East and West). The description of Goethe’s life, his spiritual travel to the east, his acquaintance with Hafez and finally the West-östlicher Divan form the four parts of this ar-ticle.