Here is another collection of renderings of poems by Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky to treasure and carry in your heart along with favorites from The Gift and Love Poems From God. Ladinsky notes that this fourteenth century Sufi poet from Perisa (Iran) had many names for God: "God to him is more than just the Father, the Mother, the Infinite, or a Being beyond comprehension. Hafiz calls God a range of names such as the Sweet Uncle, the Generous Merchant, the Immediate One, the Problem Giver, the Problem Solver, the Clever Rascal. To him, God is someone we can meet, enter, and begin to eternally explore. God is the Dancer, the Music, the Wine, the Bottle, the Beautiful Companion, the Kind Radiant One." Perhaps we should all follow his example and expand our repertoire of images of the Holy One. Reading these devotional poems is a good start.
We love the opening salvo which clearly demonstrates where the grand ride that lies ahead:
Know
The true nature of your Beloved.
In His loving eyes your every thought,
Word and movement is always —
Always Beautiful.
Write it on a piece of paper and carry it in your wallet. This belongs with your credit cards, your driver's license, and your other forms of identification. Who are you? In the eyes of the Beloved, you are beautiful.
Another image to tuck away amidst your bills and investment statements is from a poem titled "Forgiveness Is the Cash."
Forgiveness is part of the treasure you need
To craft your falcon wings
And return
To the realm of
Divine freedom.
The market may rise or fall. It makes no difference to those who are caught up in a liberating relationship with the Beloved.
this poetry sings about the goodness of the body's desires, the closeness of the Friend, the rightness of the place where we have been placed by the Immediate One to live and do our work, how even loneliness can be a catalyst to surrender to God, the happiness of those who understand their holy calling, and the joy that comes from being able to play on God's wild playground.
In "Acting So Cool," the poet writes:
The whole world just got thick
Again with
God.
That is what we like best about Landinski's approach to this Sufi poet — he remakes our limited ideas about the world, the flesh, and the devil.The Beloved peeps through every crevice of our consciousness and swoops down into our daily activities. Everything that happens to us becomes a missive from the Radiant One. We dance madly through our days as if nothing else matters. And, of course, it doesn't. The title poem in this collection says it all: There is no other subject to discuss except love.
(Please note. According to Muslim scholar Omid Safi, Persian language experts and Hafiz translators have not been able to find any direct connection between Ladinsky's poems and Hafiz poems. So it is best to attribute these poems to Ladinsky, not Hafiz. This correction, however, does not change our view that this is beautiful mystical poetry conveying great truth and inspiration.)
