Love in the Poems of Hafez

LOVE IN THE POEMS OF HAFEZ Selected Ghazals. Translation & Introduction Paul Smith. "The 'religion' of Hafez was the love of God in human form and beyond all form, and this 'religion' Hafez proclaims in all his poetry, and this 'rel¬igion' Hafez lived throughout his life. To try to put Hafez into a box labelled this or that 'religion' is an impossible task because God is impossible to classify; God can only be lived and 'religion' is the creation of man, and God is the Creator of all of mankind." I first wrote this in 1986 after I had spent 12 years translating the complete 'Divan of Hafez'. Thirty years and many hundreds of books on the great Sufi & Bhakti poets later and after composing a Life of Hafez and many Plays & Movies etc. on him... I have felt the need to take from all of the ghazals in his Divan hundreds of his poems on love that he experienced from human love as a husband, father and lover of his Muse Shaikh-i-Nabat and as a lover of his Spiritual Master Mahmud Attar, to the Divine Love of a Perfect Master, or God in Human Form which he became about ten years before he passed on and which make up about half of his poems. 'Don't place your foot down in street of Love without a Guide: by myself, for myself, a hundred moves I willed, it wasn't to be. Fate decreed Love for me... wrote it on my forehead: whatever Fate has written is impossible to wipe away.' Hafez. Introduction: Life, Spirituality & Poetry, Notes, Selected Bibliography. Large Format Paperback 7" x 10" 284 pages. Goethe: "In his poetry Hafez inscribed undeniable truth indelibly! He has no peer!" Gertrude Bell: "It is as if his mental Eye, endowed with wonderful acuteness of vision, had penetrated into those provinces of thought which we of a later age were destined to inhabit." Meher Baba: "There is no equal to Hafez in poetry. He was a Perfect Master ... His Divan is the best book in the world because it engenders feelings which ultimately lead to illumination." Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets of Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish and other languages including Hafez, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu'in, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Hallaj, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Seemab, Jigar, Iqbal, Ghalib, Lalla Ded, Ghani Kashmiri, Hali, Jigar and many others, and his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, kids books and twelve screenplays. Published by New Humanity Books. amazon.com/author/smithpa A SELECTION OF REVIEWS OF PAUL SMITH'S TRANSLATION OF HAFEZ'S DIVAN "It is not a joke. The two books... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished. Dr. M"ir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. "Who is this Paul Smith who has written such a precious book? I had no idea of the whereabouts of this brilliant person. It is a brilliant feat... the two books, the Introduction and the Divan. In spite of not knowing or having seen him we have become much attached to him and admire him. I am much thankful and grateful." Dr. Zein ab Abedin Mo'tamin (D. Lit.) Tehran."I have never seen such a good translation and I would like to write a book in Farsi and introduce his book to Iranians." Mr B. Khorramshai, Academy of Philosophy, Tehran."I would like to help to introduce your book which I loved to all Iranians and maybe to the Middle East. I will arrange a talk for you at Shiraz University and will talk to a number of Hafiz scholars and professors concerning your important work." Mr. Ali Tarrassoli. Shiraz University."Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of mystical works in English to Persian and knower of Hafiz's Divan off by heart.