In May 1815 Goethe described his collection, consisting of 100 poems with an index, as “a little whole” (Goethe, 1994, p.
Goethe borrowed the term Divan, “poetry collection,” from Hammer; but he first referred to his work (in a letter to his wife Christine dated 29 July 1814, and in his diary on 30 July 1814) as “poems addressed to Ḥāfeẓ” (Goethe, 1994, p. 875), and occasionally also called it “ divan.” In May 1815 Goethe described his collection, consisting of 100 poems with an index, as “a little whole” (Goethe, 1994, p. 875). Before deciding on the title West-östlicher Divan, he had given various names to the collection at various stages of its evolution (Burdach, 1987, pp. 270-300); but in all the titles for this complex work, he retained the word Divan. Between 1814 and 1815, the Divan was considerably expanded, due to Goethe’s acquaintance with Marianne Jung (later Marianne von Willemer), who awakened fresh feelings of love in the aging poet, which he later expressed in the Buch Suleika (Lentz, 1958, pp. 4-21; Bürgel, pp. 14-15).