Poems of Hafez (Selections from the Divan)
Forthcoming The translation of this work is in preparation and will be published in the library.
Introduction
The Divan of Hafez contains some five hundred ghazals, lyrics of seven to a dozen or more couplets, the last of which usually carries the poet's own name. His poems are rich in imagery and music, and often hold a double meaning: the tavern is both a place of drinking and merriment and a sanctuary of the spirit where dogma is cast off and truth faced; the cupbearer is both a beautiful youth and a guide of souls; the longing for the beloved is both human love and the yearning for God. He mocks hypocritical clerics and sanctimonious ascetics and praises sincerity, freedom and the joy of the present. This volume brings together his most famous and most beautiful poems.