Poets

Contributing poets come from across the ‘East’ – from Morocco to Turkey, Syria to Afghanistan – and from across the ‘West’ – from Germany to the USA, Estonia to Brazil. Writing in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Slovenian, the poets have each responded to one of the themes of the twelve books of Goethe’s original Divan, including ‘The Poet’, ‘Love’, ‘The Tyrant’, ‘Faith’ and ‘Paradise’, through a contemporary lens. Working directly with the original poems or via bridge translations the English-language poets have created new poems that draw on the poetic forms and cultures of the poets taking part. We are grateful to all the poets, translators and experts involved in the project, including those who provided literal versions for some of the English-language poets to work with.

Scroll down to learn more about the contributing poets and translators.

List of Poets

All contributors to the New Divan Project are listed here. (66 poets total listed).

Nujoom Alghanem

(Arabic-language poet)

By Nujoom Alghanem:

Paul Farley

(English-language poet)

By Paul Farley:

Rajmohan Gandhi

(New Divan Essayist)

By Rajmohan Gandhi:

Raoul Schrott

(German-language poet)

By Raoul Schrott:

Reem Ghanayem

(Translator from Arabic)

By Reem Ghanayem:

Reza Mohammadi

(Persian-language poet)

By Reza Mohammadi:

Robin Robertson

(English-language poet)

By Robin Robertson:

Robyn Creswell

(Translator from Arabic)

By Robyn Creswell:

Sasha Dugdale

(Translator from Russian)

By Sasha Dugdale:

Sean O’Brien

(English-language poet)

By Sean O’Brien: