Hafez (Hafiz)

[Diane]

hafeztiles2.jpg (35.98 KiB) Viewed 8236 times

[mat james]

Did you notice that spelling error?

[Diane]

Blimey, and to think it was likely displayed in a Syrian palace at the height of the Ottoman Empire and nobody noticed. Would you be so kind as to correct the error, Mat.

[mat james]

Would you be so kind as to correct the error, Mat.

No point.
It's set in burnished clay
and the moving brush, having writ, moves on.

[st theresa]

Love Hafiz and Rumi
Also the work of Kabir Helminski in bringing them both to the light.
I was fortunate to notice a film being shown two weeks ago on the work of Rumi. The film, by a Canadian, included interviews with Coleman Barks, Kabir Helminski, Andrew Harvey and Nader Khalil. Was delightful to
see these men whose books I have read and to hear Coleman Barks reading Rumi. The film is called Rumi-Turning Ecstatic.
http://www.rumi-turningecstatic.com/

[mat james]

st theresa,
I have sent for a copy! (Rumi-Turning Ecstatic.)

Thanks for the info, Mat.

[Diane]

Nice one, Mat. Wink. St Theresa, that sounds very interesting. One for my list. Thanks.

I have appreciated Rumi for some time, but had never heard of Hafez, until recently. I went to an historical exhibition of ceramics, textiles and other art from the Islamic world, in Valencia this summer, and these tiles in the pic intrigued me greatly the moment I set eyes upon them. I knew they contained something of beauty and poetry and history. Turned out they are one of at least two 'panels' of parts of a Hafez poem, and thought to have been made in Damascus in the 16/17th centuries. So, I set off on a google trip to find out more about Hafez, and was intrigued to find he was a Persian Sufi poet, from a couple of centuries after Rumi, and held in higher esteem by many, even than Rumi.

I hope to get a book by Daniel Ladinsky, who is known as a good translator of Hafez's work.

There are different wells within your heart.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far too deep for that.

I am very happy about the how of my discovery of this poet! Hence the picture.

http://www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/hafiz

[mat james]

Is "Hafez" Hafiz's brother?
That poetry is so refreshing, Diane. Thanks for the link.
I haven't read much Hafiz, but I will now.

Mat

[Diane]

It's great isn't it Mat. I read a lot of stuff saying English translations of Hafez (and brother Fiz), lose much of the original. So I went to faithful old youtube. Check out this guy, Bahram Tahririha, here reciting. Sounds rich and deep and intriguing, even without understanding the words. Featuring pic of Hafez's tomb in Shiraz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sACmikmSUFE

[joseph_m]

Hafez is indeed the most sophisticated Iranian (Persian) poet. I consider myself fortunate to be able to read
his works in the original Parsi (Farsi or Persian) language. And, I find myself amazed and bewildered every
time I read or re-read one of his pieces. There are very few literary works even in Parsi analyzing and comparing
Hafez and Molavi (as Rumi is known to Iranians). In my non-expert view, Hafez is more concise and more subtle than
Rumi. In the world of Parsi literature, Hafez is considered the peak and the reference.

Writing commentaries to Hafez's poetry is one of the ultimate signs of literary maturity and depth for many of the
most revered contemporary Iranian poets and literary scholars such as Shamloo, Sayeh, and Kadkani. Hafez is the
creator of poetic and spiritual impossibilities. He is a world within our world. Simply unique.

[mat james]

Hi Diane, St. Teresa and Joseph,
I followed up on Diane's link above
http://www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/hafiz
In several of the poems that I read (and enjoyed) Hafez seems to draw a bit from the poems of Omar Khyam.
I remember reading some old Cambridge lectures (read in an old book) once that plagiarism is not frowned upon by Persian writers of the past, that somehow they just weave it all together and call it their own without reference to the original source. Is this an accurate assessment, Joseph, or is something "lost in translation"?
Joseph, you write above,

Writing commentaries to Hafez's poetry is one of the ultimate signs of literary maturity and depth

The 'depth' you are referring to must be mystical understanding/awareness, I assume.
Yes, this little biography extract below, suggests the same.

"During the remaining eight years of his life, Hafiz wrote half of the poems that bear his name. He no longer wrote of his desire for the Beloved, for now he was the Beloved. He wrote of the Unity of God,...

(http://www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/hafiz/biography)

Ah...the mystics have me again: what can I do but lay down and enjoy that oneness?
Khyam, Hafez, Cruz, Plotinus, Cohen, Eason.....and me of course!

matbbgj

[lonndubh]

Ah...the mystics have me again: what can I do but lay down and enjoy that oneness?
Khyam, Hafez, Cruz, Plotinus, Cohen, Eason.....and me of course!

matbbgj

Mat you make it sound so simple -not one word about the dark night of the soul

[Diane]

Hi Joseph, Mat, St T and lonndubh.

How excellent that you speak Parsi and can read and appreciate Hafez in the original, Joseph. Fascinating to read your post – thanks.

It was this piece by Reza Ordoubadian that made me realise how impoverished English translations of Hafez would be. Since reading it I can't read anything of Hafez without wondering how much it has lost of the original, good as some of the translations seem to be:

http://www.iranian.com/RezaOrdoubadian/ ... index.html

I’m interested in the twelve ‘musical modes’ this article states that there are in Parsi, with only three in English. Can anyone explain what is meant by ‘musical modes’?

I discovered that the final part of RW Emerson’s poem Give All to Love,

Heartily know,
When half-gods go,
The gods arrive.

was inspired by Hafez. I’ve always relished those words. RWE was a big admirer of Hafez (and O Khayyam).

[mat james]

Mat you make it sound so simple -not one word about the dark night of the soul

lonndubh,
"...without light or guide
save that which burned in my heart" (Cruz) So when the "Night" is "Dark", I switch to sonar or infra-red.
Where there's a will there's...

[indy]

I once had a dream in which a voice told me: "Follow in the shoes of Hafiz." I had read some Rumi but not Hafiz, so I went looking for his poems. At the time the only thing I could find was a library book, written years before, which I couldn't make heads or tails of. I was thrilled when I came across Ladinsky's The Gift. More recently I picked up Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved by Thomas Rain Crowe. In The Hand of Poetry, Inayat Khan writes of Hafiz:

The mission of Hafiz was to express, to a fanatically-inclined religious world, the presence of God, which is not to be found only in heaven, but here on earth. . . . Hafiz is a shape-shifter, and each poem plays in the risk of soul-change. Hafiz moves along the edge that so many have longed to discover, where soul-body and language-music distinctions dissolve and a new life-form is born of their love.

An Iranian friend tells me that Hafiz's poetry is used an Oracle, and another friend pointed out that Goethe was also a great admirer of Hafiz. I'm just glad the dream voice told me to follow in his shoes--not try to fill them.