A Comparative Study of Semantic Sign of Illustrations in Hafez Divan and Goethe's West-Eastern Divan Based on the Paintings of Mahmoud Farshchian and Franz Xaver Simm

Shirazi Hafez, the well-known Iranian poet and composer of lyric poems, enjoyed such an outstanding fame that Goethe, the famous German author and poet wrote down his West-Eastern Divan, following becoming familiar with the lyrics of Hafez. The West-Eastern Divan consists of twelve books that Goethe chose Iranian names that were prevalent in Iran for all of them. These names, as per the priority and latency of books in the Divan are as follows: Moghni Nameh, Hafez Nameh, Eshgh Nameh, Tafakor Nameh, Ranj Nameh, Hekmat Nameh, Teimour Nameh, Zoleikha Nameh, Saghi Nameh, Masal Nameh, Parsi Nameh and Khold Nameh.
The meanings hidden in the couplets of Hafez's lyrics as well as Goethe's West-Eastern Divan have encouraged a wide variety of artists across the world to make innovative illustrations. Illustration is a kind of illustrative writing that narrates something. Mankind is inherently an illustration making being, whether when living inside a cave and making some illustrations to overcome the environment or now taking advantage of that to communicate and explain various issues. Therefore, an illustration artist helps people get an image of the work and enjoy more when reading a piece of poetical work. As human behavior science indicates, people communicate better to images and illustrations comparing to texts and illustrators take advantage of it to make the implications and meaning of a text or a piece of poem more understandable.
Book illustration in Iran has been a lot more popular comparing to its western type, in such a way that painter Mani (216 B.C.), presented his famous book named Arzhang, bearing a variety of illustrations and inspired by the teachings of Manavi religion, as his miracle. The illustrations of that book are not available nowadays and only a part of book illustrated of Manvai ritual of the western Asia has been found that indicates the writing type of this book, but it has been surely one of the book illustration samples from the texts in (Parthian era).
According to Saussure, implications and signs are a signifier and meanings are a signified. Meaning comes after implication and they are dependent to each other. Semantic sign starts with sign but it targets the meaning. Greimas, the ideologist in the field of semantics sign believes that one should pass text appearance and reach the depth, because the deep and inner structures bear semantics sign and illustrator may take advantage of such meanings in the text and creates some innovative works. That is way examining semantics sing is deemed as a curious study for discovery and analysis between texts and illustrations.
The present research is an analytical-descriptive one in quality type. Information has been gathered by library method. Information has been collected by the means of studying illustrations and written texts. The statistical population for the present research includes Goethe's painting taken from the book of Goethe's Works, 1st Vol. including 20 illustrations made in black and white by some western painters. Thirteen paintings have been painted by German-Austrian illustrator Franz Xaver Simm. On the other hand, there are the illustrations of Mahmoud Farshchian, the famous Iranian painter that are 21 works made under inspiration of the lyrics of Hafez.
Contrary to the western illustrator that all the illustration have come directly out of the meanings of text the West-Eastern Divan of Goethe, most paintings of Mr Farshchina are in one sheet and inspired by a lyric or a couplet and they have not been a set inside the lyrics of a book of Hafez. Finally, upon a final study, six paintings from the two western and eastern illustrators have been taken into consideration in terms of semantics sign comparing to the poem text and they include: Saghi Nameh, Zoleikha Nameh, Parsi Nameh, Teimour Nameh, Khold Nameh and Tafakor Nameh and six paintings of Farshchian have been compared and studied according to these lyrics of Hafez.
Generally, the research results indicate that the works of master Farshchian have succeeded a lot more to propagate the signs related to the thoughts of Hafez, because the painter's thoughts, experiences, vision and beliefs have been reflected from the same culture and vision, but the western artists, like the way Goethe has been inspired by Hafez's poems, mostly reflect the material thoughts and western-type emotions in their works. The direct impression of Quran on Hafez and the spiritual and mystical style of Farshchian are clearly seen in the works of them due to cultural affinity and vicinity.
A comparative recognition of illustration in the works of Hafez and Goethe in semantics sign terms indicated that 10 symbols such as old mystic, lover and beloved, plant, animal and objects, image location, paradise, clothes, style, technique, salvation, and type of narration are prevalent forms of works. These symbols indicate that the western painter has been mostly under the influence of Goethe's text and it has painted while being backed up by a western, Ottoman, Indian and finally Iranian culture, when painting. Wile, backed up by the spiritual, mystical and Iranian thoughts that he knows of Hafez, Farshchian has introduced him to the world. The impact of living areas of both painters of their visions and cultural roots has been directly reflected in their works.
In using illustrations in approach of semantics sign in the poems of Hafez and Goethe, both painters have had in parallel imagination of the poem text and old mystic, lover and beloved, Zoleikha and the paradise. While the atmosphere of painting in the works of western artist is a material land, with objects familiar to all humans and in paintings of Farshchian the world is heavenly.
By comparing the application of expressing mystical feelings by using image in the poetry of Hafez and Goethe it can be said that in the works of western artist, love is scattered and running in a private and peaceful place and thus is the beloved who looks at the lover from above and the lover imagines sitting gently next to the beloved and cursing her and this kind of lovely meeting is prevalent in the western culture but such meeting in the works of Farshchian, happens on earth but it is led to mortality of lover in the love of beloved, in a heavenly atmosphere that is in the background.
Praising God and salvation are among other mystical aspects. The western painter and the poet, reaching the beloved or residing in the paradise is the last and final stage of salvation, while in in the poems of Hafez and in paintings of Farshchian, final destination of salvation is reaching the beloved that is actually God and the world worshiped and that is the gift waiting for human that is the very old mystic.
As a result, it can be said that in expressing the works of imm and mr Farshchian, a half of such symbols are in parallel on the surface but they completely differ in the other half.
Goethe is fascinated about Hafez and Hafez is fascinated about Quran and mysticism and therefore in expressing the works of western painter and mr Farshchian, each one has had physically a similar but actually different perceptions of the poems.
Taking into consideration the existing limitations such as impossibility of choosing other images of Goethe's West-Eastern Divan, lack of access to colorful images of the western painters in general and the paintings of Simm, in particular, likewise limitation of sources in the field of Goethe's works, type of different points of view of the western painter and Farshchian toward the text due to cultural difference and finally much time difference between the eras of Hafez and Goethe, it is recommended to the researchers to examine the poetry texts with the illustrations in works of Simm and Farshchian, in other aspects.