" The Gift " versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky

  

" The Gift "

Poems by Hafiz (c.1320-1389)

The Great Sufi Master

 

I was introduced this book  in 2003 and have loved it since the first moment I read it.  All the poems sing to me as if I have known them forever. 

I have always read the poems in the same way since a friend of mine handed the book to me, told me to hold it in my hands and when it felt right just open the book.  It never fails I land on the pages I need  to read at that moment. Since then a couple of my Persian friends have told me that they grew up with Hafiz in their home and every morning they would hold a book of his poetry in their hands and ask for their "prayer" for the day. Then they would open the book and read whatever page they landed on.

 

Some Fill With Each Good Rain

 

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

In one well
You have just a few precious cups of water,
That "love" is literally something of yourself,
It can grow as slow as a diamond
If it is lost.

Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a
Stranger,
Only to someone
Who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
Then weave them into a blanket
To protect you.

There are different wells within us.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far, far too deep
For that.

Hafiz 

 

 

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 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.

 - Hafiz

I am not certain how close to Hafiz's writings Daniel Landiskys translations are, but I do love them.

They poems are all quite beautiful, sacred and filled with Divine love. 

                                                    Daniel Ladinsky 

(born 1948) is an American Poet 

God's Bucket

If this world

Was not held in God's bucket

How could an ocean stand upside down

On its head and never lose a drop?

If your life was not contained in God's cup

How could you be so brave and laugh,

Dance in the face of death?

Hafiz,

There is a private chamber in the soul

That knows a great secret

Of which no tongue can speak.

Your existence my dear, O love my dear,

Has been sealed and marked

"Too sacred," "too sacred," by the beloved—

To ever end!

Indeed God

Has written a thousand promises

All over your heart

That say,

Life, life, life,

Is far too sacred to

Ever end.

- Hafiz

 Once again I am in need of a new copy because in the last 9 years I have given this away to 13 different people. Whenever someone reads the poems in my copy of the book and loves it as much as  I do, the book always becomes theirs. How could it not?

O Χάφιζ γεννήθηκε στο Shiraz της Περσίας - σημερινό Ιράν - γύρω στο 1325 και πέθανε στο 1389. Το κανονικό του όνομα ήταν Mohammed Shams Od Din αλλά, επειδή είχε βαθιά γνώση του Κορανίου, επονομάστηκε Hafiz, που σημαίνει "αυτός που έχει απομνημονεύσει το Κοράνι".

Τα ποιήματα του Χάφιζ υμνούν τις χαρές της ζωής, τις σαρκικές απολαύσεις, το φαΐ, το κρασί, τον έρωτα. Μερικοί όμως μελετητές διακρίνουν πίσω από την εξύμνηση του εφήμερου, την ανάγκη του ποιητή να επικαλεστεί το θείο και την ανάγκη του ανθρώπου για πνευματική γαλήνη και ολοκλήρωση.

Εδώ υπάρχει και το παράδοξο, να υμνείται π.χ. το κρασί, την χρήση του οποίου ο μουσουλμανισμός απαγορεύει.

  

Να τραβάς την καρέκλα

Να τραβάς την καρέκλα

Απο κάτω από το μυαλό σου

Και να σε βλέπεις να πέφτεις στον Θεό.

Τί άλλο υπάρχει,

Να κάνει ο Χαφίζ,

 Που να είναι διασκεδαστικό σ' αυτόν τον κόσμο!