On the meaning of "Hatem" in Goethe's West-ostlicher Divan.

• Author: Metlitzki, Dorothee

In the literature on Goethe's West-Eastern Divan from the date of its first publication in 1819 to its most recent edition in 1994 - all accompanied by detailed commentaries and a great variety of critical studies - there is a striking omission: the failure to explain the Arabic meaning of the name "Hatem" by which Goethe chose to depict his poetic self in the lyric poem of his old age that he addressed to Marianne von Willemer, his Suleika.

The omission ignores the central metaphor that Goethe embedded as an "open secret" at the heart of the poem, i.e., the Arabic word for "seal, signet ring, stamp" - (Khatim). The Arabic meaning embodied in Hatem, the poet-lover's name, is stamped on the poem to signify the final, sealed union of erotic and mystical love as celebrated by Goethe's models for the Divan, the Islamic poets of medieval Persia.

The implied meaning of "sealing" is also the key to another "enigma" in the Divan: Goethe's substitution of the name Hatem for Abu Isma il al-Hasan b. Ali at- Tughra i, who appears in the poem as "Hatem Zograi," one of two Arabic poets named Hatem whom Goethe, somewhat facetiously, cites as his prototypes.

In the great bulk of literature on Goethe's West-ostlicher Divan, stretching from Goethe's contemporaries to the present time, there is a striking - if curious - omission, namely, the failure, to my knowledge, to explain the Arabic meaning of the name "Hatem," which Goethe chose to depict his poetic persona in the great love poem of his old age.

Most recently, Katharina Mommsen, in her exhaustive work on Goethe's poetic use of the Islamic world, has painstakingly investigated Hatem Thai and "Hatem" Zograi,(1) the two Arabic poets whom Goethe chose as his prototypes in the Book of Suleika, the intimate and cryptic exchange with his much younger love, Marianne von Willemer:

Da du nun Suleika heisBest Sollt ich auch benamset seyn, Wenn du deinen Geliebten preisest, Hatem! das soll der Name seyn. Nur dass man mich daran erkennet, Keine Anmassung soll es seyn. Wer sich St. Georgenritter nennet Denkt nicht gleich Sanct Georg zu seyn. Nicht Hatem Thai, nicht der Alles Gebende Kann ich in meiner Armuth seyn, Hatem Zograi nicht, der reichlichst Lebende Von allen Dichtern, mocht' ich seyn. Aber beyde doch im Auge zu haben Es wird nicht ganz verwerflich seyn: Zu nehmen, zu geben des Gluckes Gaben Wird immer ein.gross Vergnugen seyn. Sich liebend an einander zu laben Wird Paradieses Wonne seyn.(2)

In Mommsen's extensive discussion of the legendary virtues of Hatem Thai and the much later Zograi, whom Goethe also named Hatem, the Arabic words hatim (one who ordains or decrees) and khatim (seal, stamp, signet-ring) and their permutation in Goethe's text are left unexplained.(3) To quote Hendrik Birus, who also leaves "Hatem" unexplained, "Goethes West-ostlicher Divan ist hoch immer ein Buch mit sieben Siegeln," veiling many enigmatic features in silence.(4) Be that as it may, it is obvious, as will be seen below, that Goethe chose the name Hatem for the poet-lover of Suleika with great deliberation, in full and shared knowledge of the Arabic word.

Clearly, the meaning of Hatem is the crucial device by which Goethe stamped his own persona both as poet and lover on the great achievement of his old age. The "Benamsung" must be the guide to the secret heart of the poem: "Hatem! das soll der Name seyn."

The two Hatems whom Goethe, a little facetiously, draws into the reader's field of vision as exemplary prototypes of poetic virtue are the pre-Islamic poet Hatim at-Ta i, proverbial for his hospitality, the great civic virtue of the Arabs, whose generosity is exemplified in tales told in The Thousand and One Nights and, by way of Sadi, in the Decameron.(5) The other is Abu Isma il al-Hasan (al-Husein) ibn Ali...