Collection of Hafez Poems (Farsi & English text)
World View and Essential PhilosophyIn the Sufi Poetry of Hafiz
A systemic representation of key concepts in the
Mystical poetry of Hafiz
By: S. M. Haghi
Hafez, (Khwaja Shams ad-Din Mohammad of Shiraz) Hafiz (1320-1389) , حافظ، خواجه شیراز
The Life of Hafiz
By:
M. Aryanpur Kashani
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.
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 famous ode beginning with “‘Ayb-e rendan makon ay zahed-e pakizeh seresht” exemplifies his attitude toward zealots in lines such as the following:
Pious clergy! Don’t mind libertines like me,
For you won’t account for other people’s sin.Mind your business, why in others’ you’r keen?
What we saw today, its fruit tomorrow see.
In another ode, he says:
They closed the tavern door; O’Lord, do not permit.
That they open the door of shame and deceit.
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”
Hafiz died in 1391. He is buried in a garden which in his honor is called Hafizieh. His mausoleum is one of the major attractions of Shiraz and is often visited by many of his faithful admirers.
The Cannon of Hafiz
It appears that Hafiz was indifferent toward the task of collecting his own poems. After his death, a friend named Golandam compiled the poet’s verses and wrote a preface (dibacheh). Ironically, the great popularity of Hafiz is a cause of the difficulties associated with his poetry. To impress their buyers with larger editions, unscrupulous copyists included the works of other poets in the Divan of Hafiz. Moreover, in later decades some poets circulated their controversial odes under the name of Hafiz in order to escape persecution. Thus, whereas most scholars and experts believe that Hafiz wrote between four-and five-hundred odes (ghazals), some editions of the Divan contain more than eight-hundred.
Another difficulty with the poems of Hafiz is the insertion of obtrusive lines and the proliferation of verbal variants. Because of carelessness or a desire to inflate the text, a copyist may have added lines composed by other poets. Similarly, ignorance or a desire for novelty may have led a copyist to tamper with the text. As a result, the great demand for the Divan caused excessive copying leading to textual corruption.
The Poetry of Hafiz
In the Persian-speaking world (Iran, Afghanistan, the southern republics of the Soviet Union, parts of Pakistan, India, Iraq, Turkey, and regions around the southern half of the Persian Gulf) Hafiz is generally regarded as not only as a great poet, but also as a seer, a “tongue of the mysterious” (lesan ol qayb) whose poetry is divinely inspired. In addition to those who read his Divan for enlightenment and delight, there are many who consult it to find out the future or to receive guidance and solace. Whether it is a journey, an illness, or an important transaction, lovers of Hafiz usually take a fal (augury or divination) with the Divan: They take up his book, make a wish- close their eyes, open a page at random, and recite the poem on the page. They thus receive a blend of poetic delight, existential guidance, and moral inspiration.
Because it is often mystical, permeated with more than one theme, and laden with associations, the poetry of Hafiz creates an effect far greater than the sum of its parts. It contains layers of Qur’anic and historical allusions. It also contains an idiosyncratic poetic diction such as sarv (cypress tree); mogh (Magian); khergheh (cloak); kenesht (church); and shahid (beauty). What makes the odes of hafiz unique (and, alas, this aspect of his poetry is hardly translatable) is the beauty of his images, his mellifluous language, and his magical rhythm.
Even though Hafiz’s odes defy classification, they can be loosely divided into four types:
- Lyrics in which the dominant theme is human love and real (as opposed to symbolic) wine.
- Odes which deal primarily with mystical love and with wine, rose, lover, etc. as symbols.
- Poems in which Hafiz makes quick shifts from one theme, image, or allusion to another. Like the second type, these deal with mystical love and symbolic wine, but in much more complex fashion. The odes in this group have multiple themes and luxuriant images. These qualities-and their philosophical depth make such poems appear obscure and multifaceted, at times even “incoherent.” For some native readers, these odes serve as inkblots, evoking different intellectual and emotional reactions, depending on the mood of the hour and the personality of the reader.
- Finally, there are the poems that contain a relatively large dosage of sociopolitical undertones. These can be ascribed to the various stages of the poet’s life, because they reflect particular events or people. Some of these are panegyrics composed in praise of dignitaries and kings. Others are masterly blends of social commentary and criticism hidden underneath a trope bedecked gossamer of references to love, lover, and wine.
Hafiz’s critical comments are mainly directed against hypocritical clergy and harsh magistrates. Such comments make probable the stories about his persecution by magistrates and the mullahs and the desecration of his tomb soon after his death. It is not surprising that the poet who wrote lines such as the following had such inveterate enemies:
Hafiz, drink! Sheikh and Sheriff, I tell,
All are hypocrites, if you examine them well!
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* This is an excerpt of an introduction by M. Aryanpur Kashani for “Odes of Hafiz, translated from the Persian, by Abbas Aryanpur Kashani, LL.D Published by Mazda Publishers, U.S.A, 1984. This article has been provided to Iran Online by Iranian Cultural Center of Orange County (ICCOC), California, USA.
World View and Essential Philosophy
In the Sufi Poetry of Hafiz
A systemic representation of key concepts in the
Mystical poetry of Hafiz
By:
S. M. Haghi
1) The man and his work
Shams-ud-din Mohammad Hafiz Shirazi is a well known mystic-poet philosopher of the 14th century Iran (approximately 1320-1389). He is known as Khajeh Hafiz (The Master Memorizer of Quran), Losan-ul-ghyb (The Tongue of The Hidden), Tarjomanul-Asrar (The Interpreter of Secrets).
Hafiz entitled also as “The Poet of The Poets”. He is the supreme master of lyric-love-poetry. His collected works -Divan- (collected by Mohammad Golandam after Hafiz’s death) mainly consists of lyric-love-songs of utmost subtly of poetic expressions, unprecedented richness of inner contents, inexhaustible depth of meanings, as well as, a very novel and revolutionary existential perspectives.
2) Allusion, Equivocation and indirect communication
Hafiz is a “magical poet” (shaer-e sahir) who can capture and actually did capture- the heart and mind of numerous people of different ranks and from widely separated walks of life.
Such magical uniqueness of Hafiz lyrics mainly is due to his mastery of the art and the science of the language of allusion (Zaban-e isharat). The language of indirect communications by using metaphors and equivocations to induce multiplicity of meanings and imagination
3) Gist and distillation of traditional wisdom of Iran
In terms of rich content, Hafiz poems represents a synthesization of numerous aspects of traditional wisdom of Iranian culture; religious and theological, philosophical, mystical and spiritual, and last but not least, Hafiz own contribution designated by himself as ishq-o-rendi (love and slyness). For such reasons Divan-e Hafiz destined to become the book of Oracle (fal-e-Hafiz) for those sincere friends of him who seek guidance and direction.
4) “Love”, “slyness”, and “purity of heart”
Three focal key concepts of Hafiz’s existence and the spiritual dimension of his world view. He teaches that hypocrisy does not provide the “purity of heart” and for this reason he is going to select the “Path of slyness and love.”
5) “Love and slyness”
Love and slyness are virtues the acquisition of which may seem easy at first but actually are very hard and burning consequently.
6) “Sly” and “slyness”(rend-wa-rendi)
Both terms have negative connotations in English and Persian. Hafiz’s innovation was to change the semantic content of a term with negative charge and transform it into a positive meaning. Furthermore, he was able to create a myth of human perfection under the rubric of the term “rend”. The term represents even the highest climax of human actuality in Sufi terminology, namely, the concept of “Vali”, The Saint: in a verse Hafiz identifies rend and vali as one and the same.
7) “Rend” or “sly”
“Rend” or “sly” has at least three levels and gradations of meanings:
- The lowest level with the negative charge, which is identified as “lustfulness” of youth.
- The middle level or gradation within which the Hafiz concept of “sly” is nothing but the “sly Hafiz”. It is at this level that we can delineate characterology of “sly” as a main existential posture Hafiz wished to be in and made proclamation for (I will return to this shortly).
- The highest rank or “vali”, the “guide” or “guru” toward whom he looks upward for blessing and guidance.
8) Characterology of sly
A “sly person” according to Hafiz has the following characteristics:
- Detachment from fame, honor, and prestige.
- Joyfulness at the midst of affliction and suffering.
- Seeking salvation without having any unnecessary worry.
- Anti-Hippocratic.
- Balance, posture, and anti-extremist.
- Criticalness of social-religious norms.
- Permissiveness and “anti-moralism”
- Not trusting in “Piety” and “knowledge”
- Concerned deeply with love and inner sincerity.
- Blamer Sufi.
9) Detachment and blame
Historically, the concept blame (Malamat) developed in Khurasan around 3d -9th century due to the fact that sincere Sufis tried to exercise “purification of intentions”(ikhlas). These Sufis tried their best to have a “pure heart”, and, consequently lost their interest in the opinion of others let me list some major dimensions of blame as one can delineate in verses of Hafiz:
- Blame is the result of “true love”. [The master] told me: blame will arise if you get involved with love. I do swear to God; we have not seen love without blame.
- A blamer Sufi is “faithful”, suffers the blame of others and “happy” and paradoxically does not suffer at all!
10) “Love”
The concept “love” in Hafiz poems is the center key and should be analyzed independently. Lets go over the many dimensions synoptically.
- Ineffability of love-experience- One can not speak at this sanctity domain of love because one has to be all-hearing all-seeing.
- “Creation and cosmogenesis”‘ is a byproduct of love. Adam and Fairy the byproducts of love exercise intent to attain the eternal bliss and happiness.
- Love, itself is due to Divine self manifestation in pre-eternity.
- The path of love is a “danger”, a “destiny”, a “limitless” path.
- Effort vs. Grace- In love effort is necessary but not sufficient to attain the puritan and unity with the Beloved.
- A true lover is detached and totally emancipated.
- Affliction and suffering and no complaining in the path of love.
- Love transcends reasoning and rationality.
- In the path of love one needs spiritual direction.
- Pantheism and Unitarianism of Love.
- Love is the ultimate refuge, the alchemy of eternal happiness.
- Hafiz perceives “love” as the best souvenir remaining under the rotating dome of the temporal universe.
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This article has been provided to Iran Online by Iranian Cultural Center of Orange County (ICCOC), California, USA