Hafez
Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi (also spelled Hafiz) (خواجه شمسالدین محمد حافظ شیرازی in Persian) was a Persian mystic and poet. He was born sometime between the years 1310-1337 in Shiraz , Persia (Iran), son of a certain Baha-ud-Din. His lyrical poems, ghazals are noted for their beauty and bring to fruition the love, mysticism, and early Sufi themes that had long pervaded Persian poetry.
Life
Very little credible information is known about Hafez's life, particularly its early part; there is a great deal of more or less mythical anecdote. Judging from his poetry, he must have had a good education, or else found the means to educate himself. Scholars generally agree on the following:
His father Baha-ud-Din is said to have been a coal merchant who died when Hafez was a child, leaving him and his mother in debt. It seems probable that he met with Attar of Shiraz, a somewhat disreputable scholar, and became his disciple. He is said to have later become a poet in the court of Abu Ishak, and so gained fame and influence in his hometown. It is possible that Hafez gained a position as teacher in a Qur'anic school at this time.
In his early thirties Mubariz Muzaffar captured Shiraz and seems to have ousted Hafez from his position. Hafez apparently regained his position for a brief span of time after Shah Shuja took his father, Mubariz Muzaffar, prisoner. But shortly afterwards Hafez was forced into self-imposed exile when rivals and religious characters he had criticized began slandering him. Another possible cause of his disgrace can be seen in a love affair he had with a beautiful Turkish woman, Shakh-e Nabat. Hafez fled from Shiraz to Isfahan and Yazd for his own safety.
At the age of fifty-two, Hafez once again regained his position at court, and possibly received a personal invitation from Shah Shuja, who pleaded with him to return. He obtained a more solid position after Shah Shuja's death, when Shah Shuja ascended the throne for a brief period, before being defeated and killed by Tamerlane.
When an old man, he apparently met Tamerlane to defend his poetry against charges of blasphemy.
It is generally believed that Hafez died at the age of 69. His tomb is located in the Musalla Gardens of Shiraz (referred to as Hafezieh).
Hafez took ear to his immense popularity during his lifetime, and agreed with many others (then and now) when he wrote:
- I have never seen any poetry sweeter than thine, O Hafez,
- I swear it by that Koran which thou keepest in thy bosom.
Translation by Edward Granville Browne
Legends of Hafez
Many semi-miraculous mythical tales were woven around Hafez after his death. Four of them are:
- It is said that, by listening to his father's recitations, Hafez had accomplished the task of learning the Qur'an by heart, at an early age. At the same time Hafez is said to have known by heart, the works of Molana (Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi), Sa'di, Attar, and Nezami.
- According to one tradition, before meeting Attar, Hafez had been working in a local bakery. Hafez delivered bread to a wealthy quarter of the town where he saw Shakh-e Nabat, allegedly a woman of great beauty, to whom some of his poems are addressed.
- At age 60 he is said to have begun 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 Attar on what is known to be their 40th anniversary and was offered a cup of wine. It was there where he is said to have attained 'Cosmic Consciousness'.
- In one famous tale, "a tradition too pretty to be trusted" says a noted historian, the famed conqueror Timur the Lame angrily summoned Hafez to him in to give him an explanation for one of his verses
- Belle of Shiraz, grant me but love's demand,
- And for your mole - that clinging grain of sand
- Upon a cheek of pearl - Hafiz woul give
- All of Bokhara, all of Samarkand...
With Samarkand being Timur's capital and Bokhara his kingdom's finest city. "With the blows of my lustrous sword," Timur complained, "I have subjugated most of the habitable globe...to embellish Samarkand and Bokhara, the seats of my government; and you, miserable wretch, would sell them for the black mole of a Turk of Shiraz!". Hafez, so the tale goes, bowed deeply and replied "Alas, O Prince, it is this prodigality which is the cause of the misery in which you find me".
So surprised and pleased was Timur with this response that he dismissed Hafez with handsome gifts.
Translated by Clarence Streit
Works and influence
There is no definitive version of his collected works (or diwan); editions vary from 573 to 994 poems. In Iran, his collected works have come to be used as an aid to popular divination.
Only since the 1940s has a sustained scholarly attempt - by Mas'ud Farzad, Qasim Ghani and others in Iran - been made to authenticate his work, and remove errors introduced by later copyists and censors. However, the reliability of such work has been questioned (Michael Hillmann in 'Rahnema-ye Ketab' No. 13 (1971), "Kusheshha-ye Jadid dar Shenakht-e Divan-e Sahih-e Hafez"), and in the words of Hafez scholar Iraj Bashiri.... "there remains little hope from there (i.e.: Iran) for an authenticated diwan".
Not much acclaimed in his own day and often exposed to the reproaches of orthodoxy, he greatly influenced subsequent Persian poets, and left his mark on such important Western writers as Goethe. His work was first translated into English in 1771 by William Jones. Few English translations of Hafiz have been truly successful. The figurative gesture for which he is most famous is ambiguity, and interpreting him requires care and scholarship, the search for his words' literal and symbolic meanings. Indeed, Hafez often uses images, metaphors and allusions that assume fields of knowledge shared between poet and reader.
The history of the translation of Hafez has been a complicated one. Most recently, 'The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Mastera collection of poems by Daniel Ladinsky and published in 1999, has been both commercially successful and a source of controversy. Although Ladinsky does read Persian, critics such as Murat Nemet-Nejat [1], a poet, essayist and translator of modern Turkish poetry, have asserted that his translations are largely inventions Landinsky's own inventions.
In a study inspired by Edward Said's work on 'orientalism' the critic Julie Meisami has commented on the history of Hafez translations. She remarks on how the investment of the western scholars, in seeing the east in particular ways, necessitated by their historical moment noted by Said, is exemplified in the changes made in the image of Hafez through European translations that have answered both to cultural needs and profit considerations.
Landinsky's is a perfect case in point. Meisami's article was written before its publication. His work very accurately represents the new-age genre of literature that delights in exotic tender sages fantastically involved in self-adoration. However, Landinsky's poems are made of objects, situations, terms, terms of thought, and descriptions utterly alien to Hafez and the entire corpus of classical Persian literature.
The question arises as to what are the combinations of market calculations and insufficient education that lead to the publication of a book mispresenting a world poet of the stature of Hafez, in the same environment where the same mistake would be unimaginable with respect to Goethe or Shakespeare.
Though Hafez’s poetry is influenced by his Islamic faith, he is widely respected by Hindus, Christians and others.
Hafez in contemporary Persian (Iranian) culture
The poems of Hafez are among the most popular Persian poems. They are frequently used in traditional Iranian music like works of Mohammad Reza Shajarian. Young adults have now tuned into Hafez's work, especially after a rock band called O-hum devoted itself to only using Hafez's lyrics. His poetry is also one of the sources of inspiration of Iran's leading painter Mahmoud Farshchian.
Sample Translations
The meaning behind the poetry of Hafiz must, as with all art, be decided by the patron and observer of the work. Though credited as being "The Interpreter of Mysteries," there remain many mysteries regarding Hafiz that have yet to be solved. As the poet himself had said:
- Am I a sinner or a saint,
- Which one shall it be?
- Hafiz holds the secret of his own mystery...
One of Hafez's greatest fondnesses was for wine, so when the Muzaffarids captured Shiraz in 1353 and declared prohibition it is no surprise that Hafez wrote a mournful elegy for the loss:
- Though wine gives delight, and the wind distills the perfume of the rose,
- Drink not the wine to the strains of the harp, for the constable is alert.
- Hide the goblet in the sleeve of the patchwork cloak,
- For the time, like the eye of the decanter, pours forth blood.
- Wash the wine stain from your devish cloak with tears,
- For it is the season of piety, and the time for abstinence.
Translation by Edward Browne Four years afterward, finding prohibition unfeasable for the wine-loving people of Shiraz, the ruler Shah Shuja repealed that act and for that reason Hafez immortalized his name in verse.
Of course, Hafez's fondness for wine was overshadowed by that of love:
- I said I long for thee
- You said your sorrows will end.
- Be my moon, rise up for me
- Only if it will ascend.
- I said, from lovers learn
- How with compassion burn
- Beauties, you said in return
- Such common tricks transcend.
- Your visions, I will oppose
- My mind's paths, I will close
- You said, this night-farer knows
- Another way will descend.
- With the fragrance of your hair
- I'm lost in my world's affair
- You said, if you care, you dare
- On its guidance can depend.
- I said hail to that fresh air
- That the morning breeze may share
- Cool is that breeze, you declare
- With beloved's air may blend.
- I said, your sweet and red wine
- Granted no wishes of mine
- You said, in service define
- Your life, and your time spend.
- I said, when will your kind heart
- Thoughts of friendship start?
- Said, speak not of this art
- Until it's time for that trend.
- I said, happiness and joy
- Passing time will destroy.
- Said, Hafiz, silence employ
- Sorrows too will end my friend.
Translation by Shahriar Shahriari.
Hafez translations by Thomas Rain Crowe
Miniature of a wine boy
- 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.
The work of Hafez is inspired by the Sufi teachings of his time, in which the love of youths and the drinking of (forbidden) wine are metaphors for ecstatic religious states that cannot be otherwise described.
- What choices have I, if I should not fall in love with that child?
- Mother Time does not possess a better son. (Divan, no 396)
- My sweetheart is a beauty and a child, and I fear that in play one day
- He will kill me miserably and he will not be accountable according to the holy law.
- I have a fourteen year old idol, sweet and nimble
- For whom the full moon is a willing slave.
- His sweet lips have (still) the scent of milk
- Even though the demeanor of his dark eyes drips blood. (Hafez, Divan, no 284)
- And about the Magian baccha:
- If the wine-serving magian boy would shine in this way
- I will make a broom of my eyelashes to sweep the entrance of the tavern. (Divan, no 9)
- Without the beloved’s face, the rose is not pleasant.
- Without wine, spring is not pleasant.
- The border of the sward and the air of the garden
- Without the tulip cheek is not pleasant.
- The dancing of the cypress, and the rapture of the rose,
- Without the one thousand songs is not pleasant.
- With the beloved, sugar of lip, rose of body,
- Without kiss and embrace is not pleasant.
- Every picture that reasons's hand depicteth,
- Save the picture of the idol is not pleasant.
- Hafez! the soul is a despicable coin:
- For scattering, it is not pleasant.
Translation by Henry Wilberforce-Clarke
The Tomb of Hafez
When Hafez died, controversy raged as to whether or not Hafez should be given a religious burial in light of his clearly hedonisic lifestyle and, at most times, unorthodox ways. His friends, however, convinced the authorities using Hafez's own poetry to allow it. Twenty years after his death, an elaborate tomb (the Hafezieh) was erected to honor Hafez in the Musalla Gardens in Shiraz. Inside, Hafez's alabaster tombstone bore one of his poems inscribed upon it - "profoundly religious at last" (Durant):
- Where are the tidings of union? that I may arise-
- Forth from the dust I will rise up to welcome thee!
- My soul, like a homing bird, yearning for paradise,
- Shall arise and soar, from the snares of the world set free.
- When the voice of thy love shall call me to by thy slave,
- I shall rise to a greater far than the mastery
- Of life and the living, time and the mortal span.
- Pour down, O Lord! from the clouds of thy guiding grace,
- The rain of a mercy that quickeneth on my grave,
- Before, like dust that the wind bears from place to place,
- I arise and flee beyond the knowledge of man.
- When to my grave thou turnest thy blessed feet,
- Wine and the lute thou shalt bring in thine hand to me;
- Thy voice shall ring through the fold of my winding-sheet,
- And I will arise and dance to thy minstrelsy.
- Though I be old, clasp me one night to thy breast,
- And I, when the dawn shall come to awaken me,
- With the flush of youth on my cheek from thy bosom will rise.
- Rise up! let mine eyes delight in thy stately grace!
- Thou art the goal to which all men's endeavor has pressed,
- And thou the idol of Hafez's worship; thy face
- From the world and life shall bid him come forth and arise!
Translation by Gertrude Bell
Nowadays, the Hafezieh is visited by millions each year and regarded by countless people to be a veritable shrine.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- E.G. Browne. Literary History of Persia. (Four volumes, 2,256 pages, and twenty-five years in the writing). 1998. ISBN 0-7007-0406-X
- Will Durant, The Reformation. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957
- Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. ASIN B-000-6BXVT-K
See also
- List of Persian poets and authors
- Persian literature
- Persian mysticism
External links
- Like A Life Giving Sun - short poem by Hafez
- Hafiz, Shams al-Din Muhammad A Biography by Prof. Iraj Bashiri, University of Minnesota
- Hafiz Poems - Translated G.Bell
- Hafez Poems - Translated by Shahriar Shahriari
- Hafez Project - Search the content of Hafez poems.
- Love and reason with Hafez
- Hafiz's Tomb in Shiraz
- Comprehensive set of scholarly entries about Hafez, on the Encyclopædia Iranica (Columbia University).
- 500 original Hafez Shirazi Ghazaliyat in Persian
- Hafiz of Shiraz: New Nightingale, New Rose
- The Songs of Hafiz
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