One of Hafez’s Molamma’āt (mixed Persian and Arabic) ghazals illustrates not only the unique transformation of Arabic prosody in Persian poetry, but also Hafez’s unique gift for copying, transforming, and improving the verses from previous ghazals (in this case a ghazal by the seminal master of the ghazal, Sanā’ī): Sana’ī Translation: Last night a…
The Troubadour of Love
Translation: The troubadour of love has such a wonderful voice and song Every melody in his repertoire has a path to a place May the world never be empty of the cry of lovers Because it has a sweet and joyful voice Although our dreg-draining Pir has neither…
Between you and me…
al-Ḥallāj Translation: Is it you or me? In this there are two gods yet You forbid, You forbid affirming duality Your selfhood is in my negation eternally My all clothes the all in two respects So where is your self [hidden] from me when I see? For my self became clear where there’s no…
Words of Bewilderment…
Say: My Lord increase me in knowledge! قل ربّي زدني علماً Quran 20:114 My Lord increase me in bewilderment in Thee! ربّي زدني فيك تحيراً -Saying of the Prophet Muḥammad Rumi Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment for cleverness is mere opinion and bewilderment is vision. زیرکی بفروش و حیرانی بخر زیرکی ظنست و…
What is this drunkeness?
A current favorite Ghazal of Hafez, a sublime wedding of melody and meanings Translation: I known not what this drunkenness is that to us he brought and who is the Saqi and from where is this wine that he brought? What tune is this musician playing so skillfully that in the midst of his song,…
Thank God the tavern is open
One of Hafez’s most musical and delightful ghazals: Translation: Thank God the tavern door is finally open for I’ve pressed my face to its door in need The wine vats are gushing and roaring drunk And that wine here is real and not metaphorical He is all drunkenness, pride, and arrogance we are all…
Poems on Hafez’s tomb
Hafez’s tomb was first constructed in 1452, around sixty years after his death by the Timurid governor of Shiraz, and has been renovated and expanded many times since, often in response to divination performed with his Divan. The tomb is adorned with calligraphic renditions of these ghazals of his, which happen to be among my…
Hafez—If you pass by my grave…
Two of my favorite poems of Hafez; legend is that scholars decided to settle a debate over whether or not Hafez should receive a proper Muslim burial by performing divination with his poetry, the last couplet of the second poem emerged and Hafez was given a proper burial and his shrine has remained a site…
I looked and all I saw was you…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ZMU1dZpIY Translation: If the meaning of your speech is not for me, then I don’t know For my heart will not be cured and my liver’s fire will not be quenched I looked and I didn’t see any one but you whom I love If not for you, love would not be sweet for those who…
The Music of Hafez
These are two of the most musical ghazals of the most musical of Persian poets, Hafez. The beauty of their melodies and rhythms are only surpassed by the sublimity of their meanings: Translation: Without the beloved’s beauty, the soul has no interest in the world He who doesn’t have that, in truth has no…