| "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.
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. In
the Hafiz CD area you can hear sound samples from a
music CD featuring English
language versions of Hafiz put to music by Nashville musician James R.
Newell.
We will be regularly updating and improving the site with new poems,
stories, and articles, so please keep coming back. If you have any
ideas or suggestions for improving the site, we encourage your
feedback. Please use the contact link to e-mail the
webmaster. Thank you for visiting our site.
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