There have been many renderings of the popular fourteenth-century Sufi poet, Hafiz — whose full name is Khwaja Shams ud-Din Muhammad Hafiz-I Shirazi (d. 1389)— that have had a profound impact on readers. Some of these renderings, though, have had little connection to the original Persian in which Hafiz wrote. Scholars have pointed this out.
So Gray and Anvar translate eighty of the most important ghazals, a verse form with specific requirements of form that began in Arabic literature, of Hafiz (or Hafez — both spellings are common), showing how they read and sing when most faithfully brought into English. The translators include the Persian originals, opposite their translations.
Hafiz was born in what is now central Iran. The popularity of his poems today is due, in part, to “the fact that Persian pronouns do not indicate gender,” as the translators put it in their detailed introduction. “It is usually impossible to tell whether the beloved is male or female, royal, or divine. Hafiz exploited these ambiguities, powerfully and artfully, to suggest different types of 'I-Thou' relationships and to create resonances between them.” There is also an afterword in the book, plus extensive notes explaining details of the ghazals.
The ghazals include many memorable single lines, such as “Where are you going, O heart, in such a hurry?” and couplets such as “In life, be content with what you have. / Because of his discontent Adam lost the garden.” Ecstasy, hypocrisy, and divine inspiration are the most common themes. Hafiz is closely associated with Sufi spirituality.
There are many alleys in this book for meandering in rich imagery and sacred suggestions. This, for instance, is the opening of ghazal #38 (also using Adam from the Garden of Eden, who, both the Bible and Quran say was created by God by breathing into a handful of clay or dust): “Last night I saw angels knock on the tavern door. / With wine they kneaded the clay of Adam and molded it into a cup.”
