From the Nightingale in the garden, ask the news. for I Hear his lament that forth from the cage comes Friends! The true Beloved desires the prey of Hafez’s heart: For the prey of a little fly, a great falcon comes. Translation: H. Wilberforce Clarke Original: خبر بلبل این باغ بپرسید که من…
The Alif
Listen: Hafez ghazal I speak frankly and that makes me happy: I am the slave of love, I am free of both worlds. I am a bird from heaven’s garden. How do I describe that separation, my fall into this snare of accidents? I was an angel and highest paradise was my place. Adam…
Lovers never die
Hafez: هرگز نمیرد آن که دلش زنده شد به عشق ثبت است بر جریده عالم دوام ما He whose heart has been revived by love will never die Our eternity has been written in the record of the world Me: Lips scalded by love’s tongues of…
Compasses
Abu Sa’īd Abu’l Khayr (10th-11th C) Translation: You and I, my love, are a pair of compasses though divided in twain, in body we are one We circle on a point, anon like compasses at the end we bring our heads together as one. Translation: Reza Ourdoubadian. The Poems of Abu Sa’id Abu’l…
Camarón and Persian Poetry- “Nothing is Eternal” and “The Cicada”
Sarmad The universe is a kaleidoscope: now hopelessness, now hope now spring, now fall. Forget its ups and downs: do not vex yourself: The remedy for pain is the pain. Translation by Peter Lamborn Wilson and Nasrollah Pourjavady Translation: Punishment replaces punishment and one pain removes another a nail takes out…
Rumi and Hafez: Love’s Language
Rumi: Translation: When the tent-pavilion was pitched for Solomon, the birds came before him to pay their respects. They found him speaking their language and familiar with them; one by one, they sped with eager souls into his presence. All the birds, having ceased from twittering, became more articulate with Solomon than your own brother: Having…
Hafez-Your beauty, like my love
بگرفت کار حسنت چون عشق من کمالی Translation: Your beauty, like my love, grew into perfection Be happy, for these two will not decline Neither imagination nor intellect can picture a reality more beautiful than this image I would have fulfilled my life’s fortune if ever union with you was my…
Hafez and ‘Imru’l Qays
Hafez: My tears are after you, do not despise them. For how many deep seas form from shallow springs! Original: دموعي بعدكم لاتحقروها فكم بحر عميق من سواقي Hafez: سلام الله ما کر اللیالی Translation: As long as the nights follow one another And the two-stringed lutes answer…
Hasna el-Becharia-Hakmet lakdar
One of my favorite songs from a long time ago… Translation (rougher than usual): I am here by fate, my friend, by fate I am here, my cousin… Where can I find you, poor you? All my friends have betrayed me God and my parents are all that I have By fate…
Ibn ‘Arabi-Her words bring me to life…
Translation (sung portion in bold): On the day of parting they did not saddle the full-grown reddish-white camels until they had mounted the peacocks upon them, Peacocks with murderous glances and sovereign power : thou wouldst fancy that each of them was a Bilqis on her throne of pearls. When she walks on the glass pavement l…