As in Ḥāfeẓ’s work, panegyrics, anacreontics, mysticism, and eroticism formed the motifs of Goethe’s Divan, in which passion and intellect, mysticism and irony, love and common sense were equally present (Bürgel, p.
Ḥāfeẓ’s inspiration was so strong that in some of his poems Goethe called him heiligen Hafis or Meister. In other books, although Ḥāfeẓ’s name is not mentioned, his proximity can be felt through allusions and hints. A theme shared by both poets was that of poetic madness, already well-known in European literature (see Bürgel, pp. 33-34; Goethe, 1998b, pp. 176-77). As in Ḥāfeẓ’s work, panegyrics, anacreontics, mysticism, and eroticism formed the motifs of Goethe’s Divan, in which passion and intellect, mysticism and irony, love and common sense were equally present (Bürgel, p. 11). Through Ḥāfeẓ, Goethe was able to express his own moral and political criticism of his time (Bürgel, p. 28). A significant aspect of Ḥāfeẓ’s work appears in Goethe merely by implication: Ḥāfeẓ’s rendi (libertinism) is recognized but never appears as such, although Goethe did use Persian words (see Bürgel, p. 7). Allusions to rendi can be found both in the Buch Hafis and the Schenkenbuch (“Offenbar Geheimnis”; cf. Bürgel, pp. 26-27).