Thirty Poems of Hifaz of Shiraz

Paperback - 94 pages                                 Translated by Peter Avery & John Heath Stubbs

Hafiz lived in the ‘time of troubles’ of the Iranian civilisation that was then subject to much internal strife between marauding princes and under constant threat from the nomads of Central Asia under Timur. He was said to have received the gift of poetry miraculously from Khidr, literally ‘the green one’, a mysterious figure associated with the esoteric.

The poems of Hafiz have many levels of significance but have come to be interpreted above all in terms of Sufi mystical theology. His reputation to this day makes him the Shakespeare of Persian literature.

This volume, first published in 1952, makes accessible in English, thirty poems by the greatest of Persian writers, beautifully and faithfully rendered into English as a result of the close collaboration of a scholar and a poet.

Review:  
"Among the more recent translations, those of Avery and Heath-Stubbs are probably the best of the free verse translations. They present each bayt in an unrhymed couplet of loose six-stress lines, which preserve something of the essentially symmetrical form of the original." ----Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol.XI

Peter Avery, OBE (1923-2008) was born in Derby, England, and devoted his life to Persian literature and history. As a child he was introduced to Fitzgerald's paraphrase of Omar Khayyam's quatrains which lead to a lifelong interest in Persian poetry. He began to learn Persian during the Second World War when he was stationed in India because he wanted to be able to read Hafiz in the original. Having taken a degree at the London School of Oriental and African studies, after living in Iran and the Middle East until 1957, he became Lecturer in Persian Studies in the University of Cambridge, where he continued to teach, even after retirement, until the end of his life.    

 
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The Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz 

Paperback - 603 pages                                                                  Translated by Peter Avery   

Hafiz (d.1390) is honoured as the greatest lyric poet of Iran and its greatest writer of ghazals, the form which he perfected, and Peter Avery as one of the most eminent scholars of Persian poetry of the West. It was his late friend, the great Iranian scholar Parviz Natil Khanlari, who edited what is often accepted as the most reliable collection of poems, or Diván-i Hafiz.

It is this complete collection, 486 poems in all, that Avery has translated here into English for the first time with extensive annotation. A primary aim has been to render them as literally as possible while trying to convey some sense of the poetry of Hafiz, the Shakespeare of Persian literature, to the reader who lacks knowledge of Persian, as this Divan is without doubt one of mankind's greatest literary achievements.

Iranians call their great poet the Lisanu’l-ghayb, the 'Tongue of the Invisible.' This is the only complete collection of Hafiz in English translation currently available.

Peter Avery, OBE (1923-2008) was born in Derby, England, and devoted his life to Persian literature and history. As a child he was introduced to Fitzgerald's paraphrase of Omar Khayyam's quatrains which lead to a lifelong interest in Persian poetry. He began to learn Persian during the Second World War when he was stationed in India because he wanted to be able to read Hafiz in the original. Having taken a degree at the London School of Oriental and African studies, after living in Iran and the Middle East until 1957, he became Lecturer in Persian Studies in the University of Cambridge, where he continued to teach, even after retirement, until the end of his life.    

 
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The Gift - Poems by Hafiz : The Great Sufi Master 

Paperback - 345 pages                                                           Translated by Daniel Ladinsky  

Celebrates one of Islam's greatest poetic voices and renowned spiritual leaders with a collection of 250 mystical healing poems. 

More than any other Persian poet--even Rumi--Hafiz expanded the mystical, healing dimensions of poetry. Because his poems were often ecstatic love songs from God to his beloved world, many have called Hafiz the "Invisible Tongue." Indeed, Daniel Ladinsky, the accomplished translator of this volume, has said that his work with Hafiz is an attempt to do the impossible: to translate Light into words--to make the Luminous Resonance of God tangible to our finite senses.

I am

a hole in a flute

that the Christ's breath moves

through--

listen to this

music!

With this stunning collection of 250 of Hafiz's most intimate poems, Ladinsky has succeeded brilliantly in translating the essence of one of Islam's greatest poetic and religious voices. Each line of The Gift imparts the wonderful qualities of this master Sufi poet and spiritual teacher: encouragement, an audacious love that touches lives, profound knowledge, generosity, and a sweet, playful genius unparalleled in world literature.   

 
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The Tangled Braid - 99 Poems by Hafiz of Shiraz 
 Paperback - 124 pages                                       Translators: Jeffrey Einboden and John Slater

Khwaja Shams ud-Din Hafiz-i Shirazi

The Tangled Braid offers a fresh and distinctive translation of one of the world’s supreme spiritual poets – Hafiz of Shiraz.  A unique collaboration between a Cistercian monk (John Slater) and an Islamic scholar (Jeffrey Einboden), this volume combines precision and understanding, giving voice in English to Hafiz’ powerful esoteric verse.

As suggested by its title, The Tangled Braid interweaves a variety of discrete literary strands, knitting together spiritual meaning and sensual image; Muslim source and Western reader; classical Persian verse and modern English poetics.  This translation aims to wed aesthetics and erudition, presenting a work of pleasure that is also intellectually enriching and spiritually invigorating.

Generated through conversation and exchange, these poetic translations provide an authentic means of crossing religious and cultural borders, admitting contemporary audiences into the illimitable world of Persian Sufism.

Translations of Sufi poetry in the West continue to attract wide, diverse readerships.  In 2002, Time magazine recognized Coleman Barks’ The Essential Rumi to be ‘easily the most successful poetry book published in the West in the past decade’.

Reviews:
''The Tangled Braid is many translations at once: a scholar’s, a monk’s, and a poet’s. Hafiz’ poems contain worlds, showing a remarkable ability to beckon translations and diverse forms of response. Yet few translations have managed to match their exquisite combination of pristine clarity and insistent openness.  Ultimately, Hafiz calls for a translator with many minds, and this translation answers.'' ----Michelle Gil-Montero, Assistant Professor of English, Saint Vincent College.

"What a wonderful stimulus for interfaith dialogue, which too often founders on dull platitudes and grim debates. “The Tangled Braid” restores the imagination to its rightful place, enabling us to laugh and cry with Hafiz as he pursues the divine and the mortal." ----George Dardess, author of Meeting Islam: A Guide for Christians, & Do We Worship the Same God? The Bible & the Qur'an Compared.

"The verses of Hafiz have long inspired poets, and now Einboden and Slater have wedded accurate translation to an elegant, poetic simplicity, that brings the clarity and mystery of the Persian's compact stanzas, that sing once again in English." ----Sidney H. Griffith, author of The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque.  

 
 
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