The Angels Knocking on the Tavern Door: Thirty Poems of Hafez

by Hafez, Leonard Lewisohn, Robert Bly (Translator)

One of our most acclaimed poets brings the work of the great Persian mystic and poet, Hafez, to a new audience. There is no poet in our tradition who carries the amount of admiration and devotion that the Persians have for Hafez. Children learn to sing Hafez poems in the third grade, and almost every family has a copy of the collected Hafez on the dining room table. Robert Bly and the great Islamic scholar Leonard Lewisohn have worked for 15 years on this book of Hafez, the first that carries into English his nimbleness, his outrageous humor, his defenses of the private life in the face of the fundamentalists, and the joy of his love poems. He writes in the ghazal form, one of the greatest inventions in the history of poetry. This is Rumi’s wild younger brother, now brought into an English that makes his genius visible.

Genres: Poetry, Iran, Islam, Spirituality, Philosophy, Fiction, Middle East

114 pages, Hardcover

First published March 25, 2008

About the author

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 post-14th 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 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 the 14th 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.


شمس الدین محمد، حافظ شیرازی، ملقب به حافظ و لسان الغیب
مشهورترین و محبوبترین شاعر تاریخ زبان فارسی و ادبیات ایران
حوالی سال ۷۲۶ هجری قمری در شیراز متولد شد. علوم و فنون را در محفل درس برترین استادان زمان فراگرفت و در علوم ادبی عصر پایه‌ای رفیع یافت. خاصه در علوم فقهی و الهی تأمل بسیار کرد و قرآن را با چهارده روایت مختلف از برداشت. پژوهشگران احتمال می‌دهند همین دلیل باعث شده لقب او حافظ شود. حافظ مسلمان و شیعه مذهب بود و در وادی سلوک و طریقت، عرفان خاص خود را داشت. دیوان اشعار او شامل غزلیات، چند قصیده، چند مثنوی، قطعات و رباعیات است. اما در شعر آنچه بیش از همه او را دست نیافتنی کرده است غزل‌های حافظ است. حافظ در سال ۷۹۲ هجری قمری در شیراز درگذشت. آرامگاه او در حافظیهٔ شیراز زیارتگاه صاحبنظران و عاشقان شعر و ادب پارسی است. او همواره و
همچنان برای ادبیات پس از خود الهام‌بخش و تاثیرگذار بوده است

شعرِ حافظ در زمان آدم اندر باغ خُلد
دفترِ نسرین و گُل را زینتِ اوراق بود

Reviews

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's all right if the beggar claims to be a king
Today. His tent is a shadow thrown by a cloud;
His banqueting hall is a newly sown field.

That is a stanza from a poem called "On the Way to the Garden."

Its author was Hafez (aka., Hafiz), a Sufi poet who lived in Persia (Iran) almost 700 years ago.

It is a stanza of such timeless wisdom and beauty that it moved me to tears.

I read it over and over.

The renowned poet Robert Bly and scholar of Islam Leonard Lewisohn spent 14 years translating 30 of the finest poems by Hafez, Iran's most revered classical poet, in a way that would preserve the flavor and meaning of the works while making them accessible to English readers. This collection also includes an excellent essay in the back explaining Hafez's life and times and the themes of his poems.

Throughout the work of Hafez, there is a realization of the fleetingless of life, the worthlessness of wealth, the real wealth of a strand of a lover's hair. Authorities, particularly religious ones, are mocked repeatedly by Hafez for their hypocrisy and self-righteousness, for their material and temporal obsessions, for their falling from the way. To him, the drunkard has more honor.

I am a nobody, just a squatter sitting in the dust
Of the public street; and yet these sacred beings from
The Innermost Sanctuary drank some wine with me.

Hafez' poems are often spun by a drinker, himself, gratefully holding a wine cup, and asking the barkeep for the wisdom of the universe. In his works, the man who drinks, and feels and sins reaches a piety unknown to the coldly righteous, the moralists who cut themselves off from the goodness of creation. Those who claim superiority, Hafez says, have another thing coming:

You puritans on the cold stone floor, you are not safe
From the tricks of God's zeal: the distance between the cloister
And the Zoroastrian tavern is not, after all that great.

Hafez knew the Koran inside and out and embraced his god, yet his poems appeal to spiritual yearnings, not religion, and appeal to the religious and the secular.

Hafez extols the honor and blessedness of the outcast.

Hafez was the original rapper. He brags about how good he is. And he is.

Ever since the original pen first combed the curly hair
Of speech, no one has drawn aside the veil
From the face of thought more gracefully than Hafez does.

I took notes as I read this, but decided to leave them be. To say it in the spirit of Hafez, my notes would be like a ledger mark upon the waves...

Hafez is something new and beautiful in my life. This is amazing and profoundly moving poetry. I'll let him speak for himself:

----
How can this wobbly old ship keep going
When in the end we have set for our soul
The task of finding the pearl on the ocean floor?
----
Heart and soul are born for ecstatic conversation
With the Soul of Souls. That's it. If that fails,
Heart and soul are not in the end that great.
----
If I've left the orthodox mosque and made my way
To the tavern of ruin, don't scold me. The preachers'
Sermons are long-winded and the day is soon over.
----
Heart, listen to me; if you postpone the delight
Of today until tomorrow, who will guarantee
That our cash in the bank will still be here in the morning?
----
Through my enthusiasm for wine, I have thrown the book
Of my good name into the water; but doing that ensures that
The handwriting in my book of grandiosity will be blurred.
----
Don't kiss anything except the sweetheart's lip
And the cup of wine, Hafez; friends, it's a grave mistake
To kiss the hand held out to you by a puritan.
----
I want to be far away from people whose words
And deeds don't match. Among the morose and heavy-
Hearted, a heavy glass of wine for us is enough.
----
Hidden inside the crown of a king there's always
A fear of assassination; a crown is a stylish hat,
But a head is too much to pay for it.
----
It's better if you turn your face away from your
Admirers; the joy the general receives from dominating
The world is not worth the suffering of the army.
----
Don't allow your inward being to be hurt by what
You have or have not. Be glad, because every
Perfect thing is on its way to nonexistence.
----
No one has ever seen your face, and yet a thousand
Doorkeepers have arrived. You are a rose still closed,
And yet a hundred nightingales have arrived.
---
We travelers live in the guesthouse with two doors,
And we must leave. Who cares if your life goes on
Underneath a big dome or a small one?
----
Now, Hafez, how can the tongue hidden in your pen
Ever give thanks enough for the way people
Pass on your poems from hand to hand?
----
Seek satisfaction in what comes contrary
To your habit. I found interior concentration
At last in your disheveled head of hair.
----
Bring a cooling shade over my interior burning—
You are a hidden treasure—because it is out of the melancholy
Of desire for you that I have wrecked this house.
----
Purely because of his love for you, Hafez became
As rich as Solomon; and from his longing for union with you,
Like Solomon, he has nothing but wind in his hands.
----
Become a lover; if you don't, one day the affairs of the world
Will come to an end, and you'll never have had even
One glimpse of the purpose of the workings of space and time.
----
Everything the great Teachers have to say
Amounts to a single hint. I have already
Dropped that hint once. I won't drop it again.
----
How long will you gobble down the wine of sunrise
And the sugar of dawn sleep? Ask for forgiveness
In the middle of the night and cry when dawn comes.
----
Both union with you and separation from you
Confuse Me. What can I do? You are not present
Nor are you utterly absent from my sight.
----
And if the King of Beauty says, “I don't want a destitute
Lover like Hafez,” just say, “Kingship
Has always had poverty as its secret partner.
----
Reach for her forehead and lift one of those strands
Of hair; then forget about whether Saturn
Or Venus is responsible for your luck.

[Suhaib · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a pace-changer. It will move you to giddy places—airy distant lands of spirit-like creatures, humming tunes of nonchalance and meditation...

This is one of my on the spur-of-the-moment kind of reads. I gleaned through the thirty poems—moved at first by reading lines like

The heart already had it, but kept asking strangers for it.

The pearl that was never inside the shell of space and time—
We asked that from people lost at the ocean’s edge.

We do this often. We look for the good that is inside of us in other people. In other words, we project the goodness in our hearts onto others; and then we are baffled when others fall short from our expectations.

Another thing is this pearl outside space and time—this is the pure instant when time stops for a moment and everything seems still. It's that moment that stays longer than a moment. This is a pure meditative experience.


Here's one of my favorites, titled, "Do Not Sink into Sadness,"

Joseph the lost will return, Jacob should not
Sink into sadness; those who sit in the Grief
House will eventually sit in the Garden.

The grieving chest will find honey; do not let
The heart rot. The manic hysterical head
Will find peace; do not sink into sadness.

If the way the Milky Way revolves ignores
Your desires for one or two days, do not
Sink into sadness: All turning goes as it will.

I say to the bird: “As long as spring
Baptizes the grass, the immense scarlet blossoms
Will continue to sway over your head.”

Even if the flood of materialism
Drowns everything, do not sink into
Sadness, because Noah is your captain.

Do not sink into sadness, even though the mysteries
Of the other world slip past you entirely.
There are plays within plays that you cannot see...

[Edita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hafez was born in either 715/1315 or 717/1317, and spent all his life in the city of Shiraz in southwestern Persia, rarely leaving its gates, and died there in 791/1389. The poetry of Hafez and the city of Shiraz are as inseparable from each other as are Dante and the city of Florence. Long before Hafez’s birth, Shiraz was known as the House of Knowledge, having nurtured scores of geniuses in the fields of science, mysticism, and belles lettres [...]
Despite all the many other poets of that time, Hafez today remains the prime Persian poet of the fourteenth century. In fact, among all the city’s sons, with the possible exception of Sa‘di, he is the most celebrated; indeed he is generally considered
the most eminent and most renowned of all the poets of Persia. Although it would not be until a century after his death that the poetry of Hafez was assembled and collated in the Divan (collected poems) form known to us today, his poems were internationally celebrated during his own lifetime, being perused and collected by lovers of poetry, not only in Persia proper but in Ottoman Turkey and India. For several hundred years after his death, taste for his poetry was cultivated more in India and in the Ottoman world than in Persia proper. Serious scholarly interest in Hafez resurfaced in Iran less than a century ago; today myriads of printed editions of his Divan can be found in bookshops in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Tabriz. Several good critical
editions have appeared. Two of the best are the one compiled by Parviz Natil Khanlari, containing 486 ghazals, and that of Muhammad Qazwini and Qasim Ghani, containing some 495 ghazals.

[tee · Rating 5 out of 5]

be glad, because every perfect thing is on its way to non-existence.
hafez is the prime persian poet, and i now understand why! i took a long time to absorb each poem but still will be re-reading this very often for it is magical, and absolutely wonderful.

i said to him, "what is the purpose of the chain-like curls adorable women have?"
he said, "hafez, you're complaining; you need these links to tie up your own wild heart!"
(i will pick up a collection in urdu if possible, for it'll be a step closer to understanding him!)

[Akemi G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This translation of Hafez at least cites the original work--kind of. I'm sure the numbers on the top right corner of each poem mean something. According to the essay by coauthor Leonard Lewisohn, he translated the poems from Persian, and worked with Robert Bly to create these English translations.

The presentation of the poems drives me crazy. Most poems are translated to multi stanza, each stanza containing 3 lines. It just didn't feel right, and I had to look up what ghazal poem form is. The wiki article explains it consists of five to fifteen stanzas, each made of couplets. Now this makes sense. It's very natural to use couplets in poems, to contrast images and ideas, to rhyme, etc.

Why Bly had to change them to three lines is beyond me. If space was the issue, breaking up the couplets to four lines would have been better. (You might think this is a minor issue, but form is a major element in traditional poems.)(I get the same kind of eerie feeling when I see three chicken thighs packed in one package at the supermarket. Are there chickens with three legs? Oh, but I digress.)

Here is an example.

Last night I heard angels pounding on the door
Of the tavern. They had kneaded the clay of Adam,
And they threw the clay in the shape of a wine cup.

I assume the original would break like this:

Last night I heard angels pounding on the door of the tavern.
They had kneaded the clay of Adam, and they threw the clay in the shape of a wine cup.

If space was the problem, how about:

Last night I heard angels
pounding on the door of the tavern.
They had kneaded the clay of Adam, and
they threw the clay in the shape of a wine cup.

Perhaps, still better than the free form translation of Ladinsky.

[Joe McCluney]

Become a lover; if you don't, one day the affairs of the world
Will come to an end, and you'll never have had even
One glimpse of the purpose of the workings of space and time.

[Miriam Cihodariu · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was my first time reading Hafez and I loved his poetry so much! (Especially considering how old the texts are.)

I realize how much is lost to translation, sadly, but the vibes the poems give are very similar to Omar Khayyam's poetic view on life: wine, love, carpe diem and a formidable yet gentle criticism of ascetic attitudes. If only the cultural space from which these two great minds stem would have kept the feeling (or at least the space for expressing such feeling)!

--------------------------------
A sample I liked:

"The breath of the holy musk will drift toward us
On the dawn wind once more; everything will begin to move.
The decrepit old world will be young once more.

The Judas tree with its ruddy blossoms will offer
Wine to the jasmine, and the eye of the narcissus
Will turn its loving gaze on the red peony.

The nightingale who has endured a grievous separation
Will fly now to the court of the rose,
Demanding reparations with his wild cries.

If I’ve left the orthodox mosque and made my way
To the tavern of ruin, don’t scold me.
The preachers’ Sermons are long-winded and the day is soon over.

Heart, listen to me; if you postpone the delight
Of today until tomorrow, who will guarantee
That our cash in the bank will still be here in the morning?"

[Svetlozara Kabaktchieva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Да оценяваш със звезди персийска поезия, която идва през вековете от XIV век, е доста самонадеяно -
тя просто няма нужда от такава оценка, защото отдавна е получила най-голямата:

"How can the tongue hidden in your pen
Ever give thanks enough for the way people
Pass on your poems from hand to hand?"

След живата, мъдра и провокативна поезия на Хафез, човек получава и супер интересна студия - аз поне научих неща, за които, признавам, досега нищо не знаех.

[a ☕︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

reading this felt like talking to my father, and in fact he has probably quoted/paraphrased many of these to me since childhood. hafiz is unmatched but the loss of nuance i could not forgive (not a fault of the translators, merely a testament to the beauty of his language). likely five stars if i had been able to find these poems in romanized urdu

[Tod Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! Will read and reread this book.

[Everett · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can this wobbly old ship keep going
When in the end we have set for our soul
The task of finding the pearl on the ocean floor
[…]
How far we are from union!

Hafez‘s thoughts on the soul and it’s (dis)unity are echoed a half millennia later by the likes of Novalis and his split ray between the self and the divine; and his blue flower, a symbol of perpetual romantic longing, and also in Ekelöf‘s romantic fever dream, ‚The book of Fatumeh‘. But like Omar Khaiyyam, Hafez has a levity which neither Novalis nor Ekelöf express. Perhaps it’s the wine, perhaps it’s the milder Persian weather, I can’t really say. But splendor is also a truth, and that comes across in his work.

come, come this pantheon of desire is set
On wobbly stones. Bring some wine
For the joists of life are laid on the winds

Hafez is the ultimate lover, a true libertine, who sees beauty and light everywhere, in all its fleetingness, including - and perhaps especially - in what‘s overlooked, forbidden or unsung. The beloved, in his rendering, isn’t a possession, it is the pursuit; it’s just out of reach, the divinity is in the longing, the impossibility of attainment. But don‘t let that bother you, Hafez might say. Lean in to it, and in the meantime, there are kisses, rose gardens, nightingales, and excellent wine. I am smitten.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5
Hafez's style of writing is so hard to describe. He writes of wine and love and carpe diem, but also hard truths of life dressed with beautiful lines using epistrophe. I hate to be the "I don't understand poetry person", but truthfully, I have trouble grasping meaning from poems often. But with Hafez's writing paired with Robert Bly and Coleman Barks' translation, the messages of the poem come across flawlessly and elegantly.




Full blog post here: https://thewanderingwords.weebly.com/...

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hafez is a great Sufi poet--not many translations and these guys have done a good job--they worked 14 years (not full time) to translate 30 poems. Hafez is a little like Rumi--really ecstatic about the diety--but he is a little crankier--he thinks sex and alcohol are part of the pathway to God (honest, read the poems). He hates the hypocrisy of the aesthetes. It was a joy to read this book.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thirty of Hagez's gazels that Bly and Lewisi let simmer in translation for fourteen years; extensive research and discussion leading to their word choices.

I think thirty was used as a reference to the thirty birds who find the Simorgh in Attar's "Confrene of the Birds"..?

[Eran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Without the extensive notes at the end, the poems would mean nothing to me. They're dull. That's probably the fault of the translation, which must be very difficult. Maybe other translations are better?

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hafez arrived--and I can only assume will continue to arrive--at the most needed times, when the individual needs to surface for oxygen from the social morass coating the unique pleasures hidden in heart.

[Stosch · Rating 5 out of 5]

great poet. he seems kinda like the bukowski of persia. bit more upbeat than omar, omar seems to get melancholic. both brilliant of course.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for Hafez, four stars for Bly and Lewisohn’s translation, which beautifully conveys Hafez’s spirit if not the ghazal form.

[Madhusree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this dive into sufi poems by Hafez.

[Omama. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of thirty poems, contains lines, and ringing metaphors about wisdom, dangers of repression and the paradoxes of one’s faith. Hafez praises the taverns inside Shiraz, the fields outside, the upper lips of beautiful women, the charm of wine and conversation, and the beauty of young men and women. But always he wants us to remember;
“The pearl that was never inside the shell of space and time.”

One of the poem really struck a chord:

Joseph the lost will return – Jacob should not sink into sadness;
those who sit in the grief house will eventually sit in the garden.
The grieving chest will find honey; do not let the heart close.
The hysterical mind will find peace – do not sink into sadness.
If the way the earth revolves confounds your desires for two days, do not sink into sadness: all turning goes as it will.
I say to the bird: “As long as spring baptizes the grass, the scarlet blossoms will continue to sway over your head.”
Even if the flood drowns everything, do not sink into sadness, because Noah is your captain.
Do not sink into sadness, even though the mysteries of the other world slip past you entirely.
There are plays within plays that we cannot see.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really starting to like Iranian poetry. This is from the 14th century. Good stuff.

[J.G.P. MacAdam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hafez! What am I doing reading Hafez? I don't even understand what I'm reading. I need to read the translator's commentary which cites another Islamic scholar's commentaries on Hafez dated to the 12th century or something in order to merely gain an inkling of just what the fuck this guy Hafez is talking about...

But once you get it, it's like the lightbulb goes on in the musty ol' attic upstairs, you know what I mean? 😆

Here's an example from "Reaping Wheat":

"Whether I am good or bad is not exactly to the point.
Go ahead and be who you are. This world we live in
Is a farm, and each of us reaps our own wheat."

Hafez is talking about sin. And I had to read more in order to understand that what he's saying is something along the lines of don't worry so much about be right (holy) or wrong (sinful), because, as he says four stanzas later:

"I'm not the only one who has fallen away
From the holy cell; my father Adam himself
Let the eternal heaven slip out of his hands."

If even Adam sinned, perhaps committed the greatest of sins in losing the Garden for all humanity, and is yet a holy father in heaven, what can you possibly do that'll condemn you forever and ever? I'm not of the opinion that Adam ever truly existed but it's enlightening to see how Islam's own scholars, own officiants of the Quran—of which Hafez very much was, he studied the Quran, he respected and sung adulations of the Quran—yet arrive at these theological Gordian knots.

And that's a pattern in Hafez: he talks about the tavern door (see title) and says the tavern may very well be the place where you find holiness, as it were, instead of the mosque. He says—hey, puritans, clerics, don't bother yourself with my sins. Bother yourself with your own sins, by implication.

And here's one I've yet to figure out but I love no less:

"What is our purpose in admiring the garden
Of this world? The answer is: Let the man inside
Your eye reach out and take roses from Your face."

Just the imagery, lol 😁

[Raymonds009 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was completely enchanted by this book. These poems from a thousand years ago have a fresh and vital quality that just amazes. This was something that I had no familiarity with at all so it was a total surprise. I am glad that I took the advice of a friend and read this.

The book appears to be small and an easy read. This did not happen. I found myself rereading many of the poems as soon as I got to the end because I was not sure what even happened. I know that this does not sound even reasonable. All I can say is that they move so quickly and then turn in on themselves and then retreat to someplace completely out of context.

At the same time they are not difficult to read if this makes any sense. Once you get the picture, you get the picture. I was bowled over. Now I need to read more. I wish that I could read the originals. Try this out for size.

[Tam G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like most poets there are moments of brilliance, probably far fewer than Hafez sees in himself.

I think this is more interesting if you are a bit of an Epicurean recovering from a religious background. Neither applies to me. I did find the links between Hafez's grip on spirituality and his views on beauty interesting, even if his constant excuse for alcoholism and lethargy was his internal quest for beauty and satisfaction.

I think this subject matter probably resonates a lot for the modern reader, although many over 30 (myself included) may start to roll their eyes at the constant need to justify another night of drinking, sex, and bragging. Sure this is a conservative theocratic society and he's doing his small part to stick-it-to-the-Man but it gets repetitive.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The name of Hafez has been well inscribed in the books,
But in our clan of disreputables, the difference
Between profit and loss is not all that great."

One can not overemphasize the importance of Hafez. This translation is amazing and powerful, and like the great mystic poets of past centuries it is open to everyone who studies the esoteric path. Similar to Ikkyu and Ryokan, celebrating the wild and untamed aspect of ourselves beyond Ego and convention, Hafez is an amazing voice to hear.

[eyupcan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is like a journey to the mystics of east.In some moments it reminds me of Omer Khayyam,I felt like I read his verses.In some verses Hafez draws a picture in front of us that gets us thinking over it.you do not notice that while you walk in lines of his descriptions.I want to quote few parts

to spend even one moment grieving about this world
is a waste of time.let's go and sell our robes
for ordinary wine.who says our robes are better than wine?

[Michael Graber]

Hafez comes to life as a wry, wise, wild man under Bly's translation. Those used to Landisky's translations will find a wholly different but equally stunning poet lurking here with angels, ramblers, saints and sinners, and other creatures. Hafez may have been one of the the world's most profound lovers of this and the other world - so much so, the two worlds dance, whipping up revelation and revelation as only real poetry can do. Highly recommended.

[Mario Adame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hafez's poetry is extremely interesting. I'm sure there is plenty of frustration and joy with translating his words. In this book, I believe poetry readers will find how his struggles become similar to those that are alive today in our world. Wine drinking, religious education, love, jokes, nature, and pleasure are evident in his works. I am thankful to all those translators whom publish Hafez's truly genius art.

[Donn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a find! A little riskier than Rumi, this sufi poet fills his senses with this fleeting world--tastes the wine, tastes the girl.

"The holy court of love is a thousand times higher
Than the house of reason. Only a man who holds his soul
Lightly on his sleeve can kiss the threshold of that court."

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting to think of this book in relation to "Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems," another book that Bly translated. Hafez could be viewed as a sort of masculine counterpart to Mirabai's feminine musings, a yang to her yin. Personally I prefer Mirabai's less rigidly formal and more intimate-feeling creations.