Book Description

THE COMPLETE DIVAN OF HAFEZ Including Ghazals Inspired by the Ghazals of Hafezby the Translator Paul SmithThe ghazal, spiritual love poems or mystical blues in a strict rhyming-structure, are still very popular in the Indian Sub-continent and the Middle-East of today. It is the oldest of all forms of poetry (it is said that Adam the first poet invented it). The greatest Master of the ghazal was Hafez of Shiraz (1320-1392). This is a completely revised one volume edition of the only modern, poetic translation of Hafez's masterpiece of 793 ghazals, masnavis, rubais and his other poems. The spiritual and historical and human content is here in understandable, beautiful poetry: the correct rhyme-structure has been achieved, without intruding, in readable English for the first time. In the Introduction his life story is told in greater detail than anywhere else; his spirituality is explored, the form and function of his poetry, and the use of his book for over 600 years as a worldly guide and spiritual oracle. Included are notes to most poems, glossary, selected bibliography and indexes. There are four Appendixes including over 200 of the translator's own ghazals using the first couplets of those of Hafez for inspiration. Large Format Paperback 7" x 10" 779 pages.Goethe: "In his poetry Hafiz 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 Hafiz 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."COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH'S TRANSLATION OF THE DIVAN"It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished." Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran."Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of English to Persian and knower of Hafiz's Divan off by heart. 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 Hafiz, Sadi, Iqbal, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu'in, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, many others, and his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, kids books, screenplays. www.newhumanitybooks.com