Entrance to Hafiz's World of Ideas in the Light of the German Translation of his Divan by Joachim Wohlleben

The translation of Hafiz's Divan, which is rightly presented as a treasure trove of Iranian cultural memory, seems to be a difficult, if not impossible task. The prerequisite for a precise and comprehensive understanding of Hafiz’s poems is to enter the world of his thoughts, and recognize the tradi-tion and cultural context of his time. Joachim Wohlleben (1936-2004), the German philosopher and professor of literature at Free University of Berlin, presented a new translation of Hafiz's Divan into German in 2004. In his translation, Wohlleben endeavors to transform the poetry into prose, so that what he names a “sober translation” appears, without any priority to the form of Ghazal, in which the essence and the content of Hafiz's thoughts and ideas becomes understandable to the German audience. This article attempts to critically examine the mentioned assertion with particular em-phasis on ideas of Western thinkers such as Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, and with special regard to the rhetorical theories of ʻAbd al-Qāher al-Ğorğānī.

Entrance to Hafiz's World of Ideas in the Light of the German Translation of his Divan by Joachim Wohlleben Keywords:

Hafiz , Joachim Wohlleben , Johan Wolfgang von Goethe , ʻAbd al-Qāher al-Ğorğānī , translation studies , literary translation