Twenty Minutes
Paul Farley learns how Goethe's original 'West-Eastern Divan' poems were fuelled by a passionate love affair.
To complement the series of Beethoven concerts by the West-Eastern Divan orchestra, Paul Farley explores Goethe's poetic sequence, 'The West-Eastern Divan', from which Daniel Barenboim's orchestra takes its name.
From his youth, the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was fascinated by the ideas and culture of Islam and the Arabic-speaking world. His encounter in later life with the poems of medieval Persian poet Hafiz inspired his own tribute to eastern poetry: 'The West-Eastern Divan'.
In tonight's programme, Paul learns how Goethe's original 'West-Eastern Divan' poems were fuelled by a passionate love affair with a young married woman, Marianne von Willemer.
Paul examines Goethe's engagement with the ideas and imagery of Persian literature, and talks to contemporary German poets and writers about the continuing legacy of his 'West-Eastern Divan' poetry cycle.
Produced by Emma Harding.
