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"Open my
grave when I am dead, and thou shalt see a cloud of smoke rising out from
it; then shalt thou know that the fire still burns in my dead heart --
yea, it has set my very winding-sheet alight."
"If the scent of her
hair were to blow across my dust when I had been dead a hundred years, my
mouldering bones would rise and come dancing out of the tomb."
"I have estimated the
influence of Reason upon Love and found that it is like that of a raindrop
upon the ocean, which makes one little mark upon the water's face and
disappears."
As 19th century Hafiz translator
Gertrude Bell has observed, "These are the utterances of a great
poet, the imaginative interpreter of the heart of man; they are not of one
age, or of another, but for all time." Hafiz of Shiraz (Khwaja
Shams ud-Din Hafiz-i Shirazi, 1326-1390) is widely recognized as the
pre-eminent master of the Persian ghazal form. The lyrical
beauty of his poetry has been celebrated by people around the world for
centuries. Hafiz is one of the great Sufi poets, in the tradition of
Rumi. In his native land of Persia (modern Iran), where his Divan
is revered to an extent rivaled only by the Qur'an, the beauty of Hafiz's
lyrics has always been most appreciated when accompanied by music.
His words are not so much poetry as songs. TheSongsofHafiz.com
celebrates this aspect of Hafiz as well as the rich history of his
contributions to the spiritual and philosophical literature of human kind.
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Visit our Hafiz area to learn
more about the life, legends,
vision, and poetry
of Hafiz. In the poetry area you will find many different examples
of Hafiz's lyrics, both in English translations, and in the original
Persian. In the links area you will find
links to several Hafiz resources including online texts and poetry, as
well as Islamic and Sufi resources. Click the links below to hear sound samples from a music CD featuring
English
language versions of Hafiz put to music by Nashville musician James
R. Newell.
Thanks for visiting TheSongsofHafiz.com.
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