Goethe’s intriguing tale Faust is essentially a story of life comprehension. Faust strives to understand the unknown meaning of existence while still existing. Faust’s preoccupation with earthly academic knowledge begins to seem pointless as it does not appease his desired connection to the natural realm of the universe. Of course, Faust’s struggle to understand the meaning of life is not a rare debacle as countless artists, philosophers, and intellectuals are fascinated by the same questions.
For example, upon reading the desperate woe and melancholy of Faust, I was reminded very much of the ghazal in that both Faust and Urdu poets struggled to find significance in their own lives. In many ways, Faust is struggling to find the same divine truth as the masters of the ghazal. Nature is a common theme in the ghazal as poets like Ghalib and Faiz marveled at the wonders of the earth, discerning them as testaments to the grandeur of the life spirit. In the same ways, Faust is intrigued by the splendors of universal nature. In “Outside the City Gate”, Faust and Wagner travel outside the town to observe the seasonal transition and beauty of nature. Parts of Faust’s dialogue in this section are similar to the style of the ghazal: “Freed from the ice are brooks and rivers/ By spring’s enchanting, enlivening gaze;/ Hoary winter with senile shivers/ Back to his mountain lair withdrew” (Goethe 26). This poetic explanation of seasonal transition is eerily similar to the ghazals I analyzed in the first essay. One of Faiz’ matlas begins with, “Some signs of spring have come in sight, at last,/ Some flowers with cloaks rent we can now descry”.
It is interesting to see two writers (Goethe and Faiz) from such different cultures and eras expressing wonderment and inquiry for the natural world in the same manner. Examples such as these prove that art, no matter how different culturally, strives to answer the same existential questions.
