HAFEZ

HAFEZ

Hāfez is a Sufi poet who lived in the fourteenth century in the city of Shiraz in southwestern Persia. I have come to love his complicated, thought-provoking poetry.

The following poem is taken from “The Angels Knocking on the Tavern Door (Thirty Poems of Hāfez)” translated by Robert Bly and Leonard Lewisohn.

Its intriguing, opulent language took them fourteen years to translate thirty of his innumerable works.

I offer you one of his more straight-forward poems which is an invitation for meditation.

“Build a House for men and birds.
Sit with them and play music.
For a day, for just one day,
talk about that which disturbs no one
and bring some peace,
my friend,
into your beautiful eyes.”

– Hāfez

In gratitude,