no relief from the turning heavens
That wheel has a thousand flaws, and grants no favors,
I can't even pretend to be able to judge fourteenth century Persian poetry and the translation thereof, "Hafiza quarry of imagery in which poets of all ages might mine, "
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hafiz was born at Shiraz, in Persia, some time after, and died there in, He is, then, an almost exact contemporary of Chaucer, His standing in Persian literature ranks him with Shakespeare and Goethe, A Sufi, Hafiz lived in troubled times, Cities like Shiraz fell prey to the ambitions of one marauding prince after another and knew little peace, The nomads of Central Asia finally overthrew the rule of these princes, and led to the establishment of the succeeding Timurid Dynasty,
It is of utmost
literary interest that a poet who has remained immensely popular and most frequently quoted in his own land should, for the universality and grace of his wisdom and wit, be known outside the land of his birth as he used to be, the subject of veneration among literati both in Europe and the United States.
The time for revival of interest in a poet of such cosmopolitan appeal is overdue,
His poems celebrate the love, wine, and the fellowship of all creatures, This volume, first published in, brings back into print at last the renderings, the most beautiful and faithful in English, of this greatest of Persian writers, His poetry is more of Sufi Structure much like Rumi
Divine must read, I'm interested in knowing more about Iranand this is their beloved poet, But, as usual, poetry is not my forte, I did like some of the imagery, and perhaps that is the most important aspect, Apparently Goethe was a huge fan of Hafiz, in honor of whom he wrote "Westöstlicher Divan"a collection of poems addressing the engagement of German/Middle Eastern, Latin/Persian, and Christian/Muslim.
In some introductory material to that collection Goethe wrote this, which I used as an epigraph to my book "Wittgenstein in Exile":
Who would the poem understand
Must go into the poem's land.
Who would the poet understand
Must go into the poet's lands, Not my favorite translation/compilation of Hafiz still good though,
When the one I love takes a cup of wine in his hand
His beauty creates a slump in the market of idols, . .
CXCIX
What good in being a solitary, secret drinker
We're all drunkards together let's leave it at that,
Unravel the heart's tangles, and leave the spheres alone
You won't solve Fate's paradox by parallax,
Don't be surprised at Fortune's turns and twists:
That wheel has spun a thousand yarns before,
Respect the cup you hold the clay it's made from
Was the skulls of buried kings Bahman or Kobad,
For who can tell where Kai or Kaus are now,
Or Jamshid's throne, gone on a puff of wind
Farhad dropped tears of blood for Shirin's lips,
And still I see the tulip blossoming there.
I think the tulip knows how Fortune cheats,
So clasps a petalled wineglass till it fades,
Come, let's get drunk, even if it is our ruin:
For sometimes under ruins one finds treasure,
The breeze of Musalla, the waters of Ruknabad,
They keep me still from wandering far from home,
Like Hafiz, drink your wine to the sound of harpstrings
For the heart's joy is strung on a strand of silk,
/
DXXVIII
I went into the garden at dawn to gather roses,
When suddenly I heard the voice of the nightingale.
Poor thing, he was stricken in anguish for the love of the rose,
And sprinkled the meadows round with his sobs, as he looked
for help.
Lost then in thought, slowly I paced in the garden,
Considering this affair of the rose and the nightingale,
The rose is become the image of Beauty, and the nightingale
of Love:
The one will grant no favours, yet the other still remains constant.
When the voice of the nightingale prevailed upon my heart,
it seemed I had no power of endurance left,
For many roses have blossomed here in this garden,
But noone has plucked the rose without the stab of a thorn,
Hafiz, expect no relief from the turning heavens
That wheel has a thousand flaws, and grants no favours, Praise to be God! Those afar who know are near and those near but without discernment, are afar,
Hafiz I read the poems and THEN I read the preface and introduction, Now I feel I should read it again,
Hāfez حافظ Khwāja Shams ud Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ e Shīrāzī was a Persian poet whose collected works The Divan are regarded as a pinnacle of Persian literature and are to be found in the homes of most people in Iran, who learn his poems by heart and still use them as proverbs and sayings.
His life and poems have been the subject of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing postth century Persian writing than any other authorThemes of his ghazals are the beloved, faith, and exposing hypocrisy.
His influence in the lives of Persian speakers can be found in Hafez readings fāl e hāfez, Persian: فال حافظ and the frequent use of his poems in Persian traditional music, visual art, and Persian calligraphy.
His tomb i Hāfez حافظ Khwāja Shams ud Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ e Shīrāzī was a Persian poet whose collected works The Divan are regarded as a pinnacle of Persian literature and are to be found in the homes of most people in Iran, who learn his poems by heart and still use them as proverbs and sayings.
His life and poems have been the subject of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing postth century Persian writing than any other authorThemes of his ghazals are the beloved, faith, and exposing hypocrisy.
His influence in the lives of Persian speakers can be found in "Hafez readings" fāl e hāfez, Persian: فال حافظ and the frequent use of his poems in Persian traditional music, visual art, and Persian calligraphy.
His tomb is visited often, Adaptations, imitations and translations of his poems exist in all major languages, Though Hafez is well known for his poetry, he is less commonly recognized for his intellectual and political contributions, A defining feature of Hafez' poetry is its ironic tone and the theme of hypocrisy, widely believed to be a critique of the religious and ruling establishments of the time.
Persian satire developed during theth century, within the courts of the Mongol Period, In this period, Hafez and other notable early satirists, such as Ubayd Zakani, produced a body of work that has since become a template for the use of satire as a political device.
Many of his critiques are believed to be targeted at the rule of Amir Mobarez Al Din Mohammad, specifically, towards the disintegration of important public and private institutions, He was a Sufi Muslim, His work, particularly his imaginative references to monasteries, convents, Shahneh, and muhtasib, ignored the religious taboos of his period, and he found humor in some of his society's religious doctrines.
Employing humor polemically has since become a common practice in Iranian public discourse and persian satire is now perhaps the de facto language of Iranian social commentary, sitelink.
Enjoy For Free Hafiz Of Shiraz: Thirty Poems: An Introduction To The Sufi Master Conceived By Hafez Available Through Multimedia Format
Hafez