Poems from the Divan of Hafiz
Hafez, 14th c.
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Hafiz of Shiraz wrote the ghazals that many Persian speakers know by heart. This selection gives forty-three poems from his Divan in English verse by Gertrude Bell, with a long introduction on his life and times and notes on each poem. The poems turn on the rose and the nightingale, wine, the cup-bearer, the tavern and a distant beloved. They can be read as love songs or as mystical verse. The introduction places them in a fourteenth-century Persia torn by war.
Where it happens
- Shiraz Hafiz's birthplace and home for most of his life; he died there near the end of the century.12
- Hafezieh, Musalla Gardens Site of his tomb, built about twenty years after his death, among rose gardens.1
- Isfahan City taken by Abu Ishaq along with Shiraz, and named among the places his poems travelled.2
- Yazd Where Hafiz wrote a poem of exile longing to return to Shiraz.2
- Baghdad Seat of the Sultan to whom Persian governors paid a nominal allegiance, and a place that offered patronage to the poet.12
- Samarkand Timur's capital, named in the verse that legend says brought Hafiz before him.1
Through time
- 1316Hafiz is born in Shiraz, by modern scholars' estimate of 1315 or 1317.1
- 1335Abu Said dies and Hulagu's house loses control, opening years of anarchy.2
- 1353Muzaffarid rulers begin to govern most of Persia, in a period of constant civil war.2
- 1390Hafiz dies, according to Jami.1
- 1393Timur conquers Shiraz for the second and last time.2
- 1771William Jones makes the first English translation of Hafiz.1
Who is in it, and behind it
Hafiz of Shiraz poet
Persian lyric poet, born in Shiraz in the early fourteenth century; his names mean the Sun of the Faith and One who can recite the Koran.12
Gertrude Bell translator
Rendered the poems in rhymed English verse and added the introduction and notes.2
Shah Shuja patron
Ruler whose 27-year reign was the high point of Hafiz's work, though the poet briefly fell out of favour for mocking inferior poets.12
Timur conqueror
Took Shiraz in 1393; legend has him summon Hafiz over a verse offering Samarkand and Bukhara for a girl's mole.12
Shah Yahya ruler
Ruler whose court Hafiz visited at Yezd where he got less than he expected; the poet wrote homesick lines there.2
Hulagu Mongol ruler
Grandson of Chinghis Khan who took Baghdad about fifty years before Hafiz was born.2
William Jones translator
Made the first English translation of Hafiz, in 1771, and read him as a conventional love poet.1
What it is about
The rose and the nightingale
The nightingale sings of the rose; the pair stands for the lover and the beloved in Persian poetry.2
Wine and the dervish dress
Wine, taverns and freedom from restraint run through the poems, set against hypocritical piety.12
Love or mysticism
Readers have taken the ghazals as plain love lyrics or as Sufi ecstasy, and scholars still disagree.1
Homesickness and exile
Hafiz was a devoted lover of Shiraz and wrote of longing for home when away.2
Joy against time
The poems urge one to enjoy the stream, the shade and a friend before hours slip away.2
In its own words
Shemsuddin Mahommad, better known by his poetical surname of Hafiz, was born in Shiraz in the early part of the fourteenth century.
Wind from the east, oh Lapwing of the day, I send thee to my Lady, though the way Is far to Saba, where I bid thee fly; Lest in the dust thy tameless wings should lie, Broken with grief, I send thee to thy nest, Fidelity.
From the garden of Heaven a western breeze Blows through the leaves of my garden of earth; With a love like a huri I’ld take mine ease, And wine! bring me wine, the giver of mirth! To-day the beggar may boast him a king, His banqueting-hall is the ripening field, And his tent the shadow that soft clouds fling.
The nightingale with drops of his heart’s blood Had nourished the red rose, then came a wind, And catching at the boughs in envious mood, A hundred thorns about his heart entwined. Like to the parrot crunching sugar, good Seemed the world to me who could not stay The wind of Death that swept my hopes away.
The margin of a stream, the willow’s shade, A mind inclined to song, a mistress sweet, A Cup-bearer whose cheek outshines the rose, A friend upon whose heart thy heart is laid: Oh Happy-starred!
Not all the sum of earthly happiness Is worth the bowed head of a moment’s pain, And if I sell for wine my dervish dress, Worth more than what I sell is what I gain! Land where my Lady dwells, thou holdest me Enchained; else Fars were but a barren soil, Not worth the journey over land and sea, Not worth the toil!
The secret draught of wine and love repressed Are joys foundationless—then come whate’er May come, slave to the grape I stand confessed! Unloose, oh friend, the knot of thy heart’s care, Despite the warning that the Heavens reveal! For all his thought, never astronomer That loosed the knot of Fate those Heavens conceal!
The shape of the book
81 chapters, 35,199 words. Point at a bar.
How it came to be here
Hafiz lived in Shiraz in the fourteenth century, a period of civil war and invasion under the Muzaffarid rulers and then Timur. Few facts of his life are certain, and early accounts rest on anecdote. His Divan was probably compiled after his death and survives in about 1,700 manuscripts. Persians use his lines as proverbs and consult his book for guidance. European scholars began translating him in the seventeenth century. Gertrude Bell's versions keep the rhymes, and her notes quote earlier commentators.
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Sources
Text: PG 74883 | translator: Gertrude Bell. US public domain (Project Gutenberg licence).