I can’t recommend enough Ormsby’s translation of Goethe’s West-östlicher Divan. The Divan is an extraordinary work of literature that hasn’t been given its due (until now) among anglophone readers. lareviewofbooks.org/article/glorio…
It’s also an example of how translation choices can determine a work’s reception. Earlier ones left out the accompanying “Notes and Essays” & translated into verse, giving the impression that the work was a volume of orientalizing poetry. (1819 edition: digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?P…) 
It’s really something much stranger and more interesting. Goethe began writing under the spell of Hammer’s translation of the Dīvān of Ḥāfiẓ, but the project evolved as Goethe delved into a vast early modern orientalist literature.
The work is as much about Goethe’s encounter with this earlier tradition as it is his poetic encounter with Ḥāfiẓ. A keen sense for subtleties of textual mediation pervades his poems and notes. Ormsby’s clear prose translations do justice to the complexities of Goethe’s German.
The “notes” are as important as the poems, offering not just explanation and context but also a platform for a variety of theoretical musings, cultural historical reflections, poetic experimentation. (here, and continued into the next tweet, Goethe on comparison and translation)
I’m skeptical of the image of Goethe as prophet of Weltliteratur as post-nationalist cosmopolitan creed, but his Divan was at the heart of a (largely German) moment in orientalist writing that deserves our attention.
At the very least, Ormsby’s translation makes the Divan truly accessible, for the first time, to undergraduates and graduate students who haven’t yet mastered German. I look forward to seeing how it’s taught!
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