Hafiz

Hafiz

The Life of Hafiz

Hafiz was born in Shiraz, the city of "roses and nightingales", around 1324 A.D. Little reliable information is available about his life.  Evidence gleaned from his work and some of the more plausible legends indicate that Hafiz's father, Baha-Oddin, was a native of Isfahan who migrated to Shiraz to escape the Mongol invaders.  His mother was probably from Kazerun, a city to the south of Shiraz.  While still a boy, Hafiz lost his father.  Eventually, poverty drove him to work as an apprentice to a baker.  Being a precocious child, however, he was allowed to audit lessons at a school (maktab) near the bakery.  As years wore on, Hafiz proved himself an outstanding scholar and calligrapher.  The pen-name Hafiz (the memorizer) refers to the fact that he had memorized the Qur'an in its entirety.  Even though much is not known about his schooling, it is clear that the man who wrote the odes possessed vast knowledge not only in theology, philosophy, literature, and history, but also in the varieties of the human heart.

The great fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz is noted for his mystical love poems. The poetry of Hafiz has reached new heights of popularity in the West, yet his poems have been translated into European languages for over two hundred years. Hafiz is not a poet to be captured in a single translation. This modernised edition of McCarthy's elegant prose translation gives us a direct Hafiz, full of clear imagery and personal poetry.

A taste of Hafiz’s poems :

“The 
Earth would die
If the sun stopped kissing her.” 

“For I have learned that every heart will get
What it prays for
Most.” 

“The heart is a
The thousand-stringed instrument
That can only be tuned with
Love.” 

“Love is
The funeral pyre
Where I have laid my living body.

All the false notions of myself
That once caused fear, pain,
Have turned to ash
As I neared God.

 “Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe Me."

All a Sane man can ever care about
Is giving Love!” 
― Hafez

“Start seeing everything as God, But keep it a secret” 
― Hafez

During his long career as a poet, Hafiz sought the patronage of a number of local rulers.  He wrote some of his earliest poems for Abu-Es'Hagh Inju, the ruler of Shiraz and an enlightened man who revered Hafiz.  Unfortunately, in 1356, Shiraz was captured by Amir Mubarez, a ruthless and religious fanatic.  Amir Mubarez closed taverns and deprecated artists.  While poets like Hafiz were in disfavor, religious zealots gained power and oppressed the people in the name of religion.  Many of Hafiz's odes criticize the hypocrisy of religious zealots and the tyranny of magistrates and rulers. 

The tyranny of Amir Mubarez alienated the people and led to a rebellion.  Amir Mubarez was blinded and deposed and his son, Shah Shoja' (ruled 1358-85) became the ruler of Shiraz.  The new ruler restored the favored position of Hafiz at the court.  The poet's happy days, however, did not last long.  By 1369 for unknown reasons, Hafiz had once again fallen into disfavor.

It was probably during this period that Hafiz looked elsewhere for support.  He made a journey to Isfahan and Yazd, perhaps in search of a generous patron.  Meanwhile, the far-reaching fame of his poetry brought Hafiz an invitation from Ahmad Jalayer, the ruler of western Iran, to visit his capital, Baghdad.  The reasons why the poet did not go are unknown.  Later on, he was invited by Mahmud Shah of Deccan to visit India.  It is said that Hafiz journeyed overland to the Strait of Hormuz and boarded a ship bound to India.  The sea was stormy and Hafiz, it is said, left the ship and traveled back to Shiraz because he preferred terra firma to the vagaries of the sea.

A few years later, Shiraz was invaded by the Scourge of God, Tamerlane (1336-1405).  Legend has it that there occurred a meeting between this man of the sword and the man of the pen, Hafiz.  Tamerlane is said to have upbraided the poet for having written in one of his well-known odes: "If that Shirazi Turk would take my heart into her hand/For the mole on her cheek, I'd given Bukhara and Samarkand." Tamerlane, himself a native of Samarkand, demanded how Hafiz could have the temerity to give such two great cities just for the mole of a Shirazi woman.  Hafiz, it is said, answered, "Your Majesty, it is because of such prodigality that I have fallen into such povertyl"

 

“Love.
I am one with all things -
in beauty,
in ugliness,
for whatsoever is – there I am.
Not only in virtue
but in sin too I am a partner,
and not only in heaven but hell too is mine.

Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu –
it is easy to be their heir,
but Genghis, Taimur and Hitler:
they are also within me!
No, not half - I am the whole of mankind.

Whatsoever is man’s is mine -
flowers and thorns,
darkness as well as light,
and if nectar is mine, whose is poison?
Nectar and poison – both are mine
Whoever experiences this
I call religious,
for only the anguish of such experience can
revolutionalise life on earth.

Khwāja Shamsu d-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī, known by his pen name Hāfez was a Persian poet. His collected works composed of series of Persian literature are to be found in the homes of most people in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, who learn his poems by heart and use them as proverbs and sayings to this day. His life and poems have been the subject of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-fourteenth century Persian writing more than any other author.

Themes of his ghazals are the beloved, faith, and exposing hypocrisy. His influence in the lives of Iranians can be found in "Hafez readings", frequent use of his poems in Persian traditional music, visual art and Persian calligraphy. His tomb is visited often. Adaptations, imitations and translations of Hafez' poems exist in all major languages.

Hafez was born in Shiraz, Iran. Despite his profound effect on Persian life and culture and his enduring popularity and influence, few details of his life are known. Accounts of his early life rely upon traditional anecdotes. Modern scholars generally agree that Hafez was born either in 1315 or 1317; following an account by Jami 1390 is considered the year in which he died. Hafez was supported by patronage from several successive local regimes: Shah Abu Ishaq, who came to power while Hafez was in his teens; Timur at the end of his life; and even the strict ruler Shah Mubariz ud-Din Muhammad (Mubariz Muzaffar). Though his work flourished most under the twenty-seven year reign of Jalal ud-Din Shah Shuja (Shah Shuja), it is claimed Hāfez briefly fell out of favor with Shah Shuja for mocking inferior poets forcing Hāfez to flee from Shiraz to Isfahan and Yazd. His mausoleum, Hāfezieh, is located in the Musalla Gardens of Shiraz.

Hafiz wrote about 5,000 poems, although unfortunately these were never written down and therefore there is some scholarly dispute about the authenticity of some poems. In the West Hafiz has only become famous in the last century.

Listen to some of his Poems …

Why Not Be Polite?

Everyone

Is God speaking.

Why not be polite and

Listen to

Him?

I Have Learned So Much

I 

Have 

Learned 

So much from God 

That I can no longer 

Call 

Myself 

A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, 

a Buddhist, a Jew. 

The Truth has shared so much of Itself 

With me 

That I can no longer call myself 

A man, a woman, an angel, 

Or even a pure 

Soul. 

Love has 

Befriended Hafiz so completely

It has turned to ash 

And freed 

Me 

Of every concept and image 

my mind has ever known.

From: 'The Gift'  

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky 

We Might Have To

Medicate You

Resist your temptation to lie

By speaking of separation from God,

Otherwise,

We might have to medicate

You.

In the ocean

A lot goes on beneath your eyes.

Listen,

They have clinics there too

For the insane

Who persist in saying things like:

"I am independent from the

Sea,

God is not always around

Gently 

Pressing against

My body."

From: 'The Gift' 

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky 

No More Leaving

At 

Some point

Your relationship

With God

Will

Become like this:

Next time you meet Him in the forest

Or on a crowded city street

There won't be anymore

"Leaving."

That is,

God will climb into

Your pocket.

You will simply just take

Yourself

Along!

From: 'The Gift' 

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky 

Hafiz is one of the world’s most beloved poets, he is affectionately known as the ‘Tongue of the Invisible’ and the great Poet-Seer Ralph Waldo Emerson himself remarked that ‘Hafiz is a poet for poets.’

The poems of Hafiz have a beautiful and musical quality, which also embody a great spontaneity. In a myriad of poetic ways, Hafiz expresses the spiritual experiences of a mystic, in love with his Beloved. Yet he achieves this in a playful and enchanting way, like other Sufi poets, Hafiz weaves themes of ambiguity into his poems. Often he will use secular images such as wine, drunkenness and human love, however these are just symbols for the divine experiences which Hafiz is alluding to.

“That Beloved has gone completely Wild – He has poured Himself into me!
I am Blissful and Drunk and Overflowing.”

- From: The Great Secret

Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved

Look at This Beauty

The beauty of this poem is beyond words.
Do you need a guide to experience the heat of the sun?

Blessed is the brush of the painter who paints
Such beautiful pictures for his virgin bride.

Look at this beauty. There is no reason for what you see.
Experience its grace. Even in nature there is nothing so fine.

Either this poem is a miracle, or some sort of magic trick.
Guided either by Gabriel or the Invisible Voice, inside.

No one, not even Hafiz, can describe with words the Great Mystery.
No one knows in which shell the priceless pearl does hide.

- Translation by Thomas Rain Crowe

- From: Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved 100 Poems of Hafiz

Many semi-miraculous mythical tales were woven around Hāfez after his death. It is said that by listening to his father's recitations Hāfez had accomplished the task of learning the Qur'an by heart at an early age (that is in fact the meaning of the word Hafez). At the same time Hāfez is said to have known by heart, the works of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi, Saadi, Farid ud-Din and Nizami.

According to one tradition, before meeting his patron, Hajji Zayn al-Attar, Hāfez had been working in a bakery, delivering bread to a wealthy quarter of the town. There he first saw Shakh-e Nabat, a woman of great beauty, to whom some of his poems are addressed. Ravished by her beauty, but knowing that his love for her would not be requited, he allegedly held his first mystic vigil in his desire to realize this union. During this he encountered a being of surpassing beauty who identified himself as an angel, and his further attempts at union became mystic; a pursuit of spiritual union with the divine. A Western parallel is that of Dante and Beatrice.

At age 60 he is said to have begun a Chilla-nashini, a 40-day-and-night vigil by sitting in a circle which he had drawn for himself. On the 40th day, he once again met with Zayn al-Attar on what is known to be their fortieth anniversary and was offered a cup of wine. It was there where he is said to have attained "Cosmic Consciousness". Hāfez hints at this episode in one of his verses where he advises the reader to attain "clarity of wine" by letting it "sit for 40 days".

Hafez was acclaimed throughout the Islamic world during his lifetime, with other Persian poets imitating his work, and offers of patronage from Baghdad to India. Today, he is the most popular poet in Iran. Most libraries in India, Pakistan, and Iran contain his Diwan.

Much later, the work of Hāfez would leave a mark on such Western writers as Thoreau, Goethe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson—the latter referring to him as "a poet's poet. His work was first translated into English in 1771 by William Jones.

Though Hāfez’s poetry is influenced by Islam, he is widely respected by Hindus, Christians and others. October 12 is celebrated as Hafez Day in Iran.

Hafez not only influenced in religious inquiry, but secular philosophers such as Engels mentioned him in the text below, extracted from Engels' letter to Marx:

“It is, by the way, rather pleasing to read dissolute old Hafiz in the original language, which sounds quite passable and, in his grammar, old Sir William Jones likes to cite as examples dubious Persian jokes, subsequently translated into Greek verse in his Commentariis poeseos asiaticae, because even in Latin they seem to him too obscene.”

The sea of love is a sea that has no shore.
There, you can only give up your soul.

Each time you give your heart to love is a joyous moment.
For auspicious deeds there is no need for divination.

Avail yourself of the rend's way, for this mark,
like the road to buried treasure, is not plain to everyone.

Don't frighten us with reason's prohibitions, and bring wine,
for that watchman has no authority in our province.

One can see him with a pure eye, like the new moon.
Not every eye can hold that crescent's beauty.

Ask your own eyes who is killing us. 0 soul,
it is not the sin of ascendants and the crime of stars.

You are unaffected by the cry of Hafiz.
I am perplexed at that heart, hard as granite.

The question of whether his work is to be interpreted literally, mystically or both, has been a source of concern and contention to western scholars. On the one hand, some of his early readers such as William Jones saw in him a conventional lyricist similar to European love poets such as Petrarch. Others such as Wilberforce Clarke saw him as purely a poet of didactic, ecstatic mysticism in the manner of Rumi, a view which modern scholarship has come to reject.

This confusion stems from the fact that, early in Persian literary history, the poetic vocabulary was usurped by mystics who believed that the ineffable could be better approached in poetry than in prose. In composing poems of mystic content, they imbued every word and image with mystical undertones, thereby causing mysticism and lyricism to essentially converge into a single tradition. As a result, no fourteenth century Persian poet could write a lyrical poem without having a flavor of mysticism forced on it by the poetic vocabulary itself, While some poets, such as Ubayd Zakani, attempted to distance themselves from this fused mystical-lyrical tradition by writing satires, Hafez embraced the fusion and thrived on it.

Hafez often took advantage of the aforementioned lack of distinction between lyrical, mystical and panegyric writing by using highly intellectualized, elaborate metaphors and images so as to suggest multiple possible meanings. This may be illustrated via a couplet from the beginning of one of Hafez' poems.

Last night, from the cypress branch, the nightingale sang,
In Old Persian tones, the lesson of spiritual stations.

The cypress tree is a symbol both of the beloved and of a regal presence. The nightingale and birdsong evoke the traditional setting for human love. The "lessons of spiritual stations" suggest, obviously, a mystical undertone as well. Therefore, the words could signify at once a prince addressing his devoted followers, a lover courting a beloved and the reception of spiritual wisdom.

 

Hafiz had memorized the Qur’an after hearing his father recite passages. When his father died, he left school to work at a bakery and as a copyist. Hafiz became a poet at the court of Abu Ishak and also taught at a religious college. He is one of the most celebrated of the Persian poets, and his influence can be felt to this day. As the author of numerous ghazals expressing love, spirituality, and protest, he and his work continue to be important to Iranians, and many of his poems are used as proverbs or sayings.

Hafiz’s tomb is in Musalla Gardens in Shiraz. 

(Therefore I say, the Perfect Man has no self; the Holy Man has no merit; the Sage has no fame.)

Hafiz is one of the world’s most beloved poets, he is affectionately known as the ‘Tongue of the Invisible’ and the great Poet-Seer Ralph Waldo Emerson himself remarked that ‘Hafiz is a poet for poets.’

The poems of Hafiz have a beautiful and musical quality, which also embody a great spontaneity. In a myriad of poetic ways, Hafiz expresses the spiritual experiences of a mystic, in love with his Beloved. Yet he achieves this in a playful and enchanting way, like other Sufi poets, Hafiz weaves themes of ambiguity into his poems. Often he will use secular images such as wine, drunkenness and human love, however these are just symbols for the divine experiences which Hafiz is alluding to.

“That Beloved has gone completely Wild – He has poured Himself into me!
I am Blissful and Drunk and Overflowing.”

- From: The Great Secret

“Know

The true nature of your Beloved.

In His loving eyes your every thought,

Word and movement is always-

Always Beautiful.”

- Hafiz

When he was once asked, ‘What is a poet? His answer, to me, explains so much of the transformative power and grace that can be found in his work – and in the work of any great poet.

‘ A poet is someone who can pour light into a cup, then raise it to nourish your beautiful parched, holy mouth.’

“Let's get loose
With
Compassion,

Let's drown in the delicious
Ambience of
Love.” 

“Listen: this world is the lunatic's sphere,
Don't always agree it's real,

Even with my feet upon it
And the postman knowing my door

My address is somewhere else.” 

"I don't have the strength
To wring out another drop
Of the sun."

“All your wounds from craving love
Exist because of heroic deeds.” 

“Not loving is a letting go.
Listen,
The terrain around here
Is
Far too
Dangerous
For 
That.” 

 “Lean your sweet neck and mouth
Out of that dark nest where you hide,
I will pour effulgence into your mind.” 

“Lovers
Don't tell all of their
Secrets.


God and I
Have signe a contract
To be even more intimate than
That!

“Your love has an eloquent tone.
The sky and I want to hear it!” 

“Love is
The funeral pyre
Where I have laid my living body.

All the false notions of myself
That once caused fear, pain,

Have turned to ash
As I neared God.


Love is the funeral pyre
Where the heart must lay
Its body.” 

Hafiz of Shiraz was one of the very greatest Persian poets. Writing in the fourteenth century, his poems were collected as the Divan of Hafiz. The ghazals of Hafiz are erotic yet spiritual, both sensual and symbolic. Full of images of wine and the tavern, of the Beloved, of nightingales and roses, the poems of Hafiz have been regularly translated into English since the end of the eighteenth century. This new edition of Richard Le Gallienne’s moving and poetic translation finally brings one of the most popular versions of Hafiz back into print.

Hafiz is drunk in many different ways—
Drunk with the Infinite, Drunk with the divine,
With music drunk, and many a lovely face;
Also, he's drunk—with wine.

Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved

Look at This Beauty

The beauty of this poem is beyond words.

Do you need a guide to experience the heat of the sun?

Blessed is the brush of the painter who paints

Such beautiful pictures for his virgin bride.

Look at this beauty. There is no reason for what you see.

Experience its grace. Even in nature there is nothing so fine.

Either this poem is a miracle, or some sort of magic trick.

Guided either by Gabriel or the Invisible Voice, inside.

No one, not even Hafiz, can describe with words

the Great Mystery.

No one knows in which

shell the priceless pearl does hide.

- Translation by Thomas Rain Crowe

Quotes, on Hafiz' poetry: 

"In his poetry Hafiz has inscribed undeniable truth indelibly ... Hafiz has no peer!" Goethe 

"You may remember the old Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whosoever snatches a delusion from a woman.' There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

"... Hafiz is as highly esteemed by his countrymen as Shakespeare by us, and deserves as serious consideration" A. J. Arberry 

"Hafiz defies you to show him or put him in a condition inopportune or ignoble ... He fears nothing. He sees too far; he sees throughout; such is the only man I wish to see or be." Emerson