In 1814, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe read the poems of the great fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz in a newly published translation by the Austrian scholar Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall. The book was a revelation. He referred to Hafiz as his twin and was immediately inspired to create a Divan of his own. At the same time Goethe met and fell in love with Marianne von Willemer and the homage he had begun to Hafiz blossomed into a duet for two lovers. In this much anticipated new translation, Eric Ormsby's clear prose is accompanied by explanatory notes of Goethe's verse, in both German and English, and of his commentary, the 'Notes and Essays for a Better Understanding of the West-Eastern Divan. Includes all the poems in the 1819 and 1827 editions together with more than 50 poems published posthumously.