[Poetry Chaikhana] Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky) - Today

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Today By Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky) (1945? - )   I Do not Want to step so quickly Over a beautiful line on God's palm As I move through the earth's Marketplace Today. I do not want to touch any object in this world Without my eyes testifying to the truth That everything is My Beloved. Something has happened To my understanding of existence That now makes my heart always full of wonder And kindness. I do not Want to step so quickly Over this sacred place on God's body That is right beneath your Own foot As I Dance with Precious life Today.   -- from The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master, by Daniel Ladinsky Amazon.com / Photo by snackateria /

============ Thought for the Day: Take no one for granted. Every single person is a universe of being. ============

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Hi Omss -

People sometimes wonder why I don't feature more of Hafiz's poetry from Daniel Ladinsky's book, The Gift. They are such delightful, ecstatic, irreverent poems that have inspired so many people...

Ladinsky's books put me in an awkward spot. I really like the poetry from Ladinsky's books... but, well, they aren't actually by Hafiz. His collection of poetry entitled "The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master" actually contains no lines of poetry written by the great Sufi poet Hafiz!

Daniel Ladinsky seems to acknowledge this in his introduction to the book, when he writes, "I feel my relationship to Hafiz defies all reason... I had an astounding dream in which I saw Hafiz as an Infinite Fountaining Sun (I saw him as God), who sang hundreds of lines of his poetry to me in English, asking me to give that message to 'my artists and seekers.'"

You might say that Ladinsky's poetry is "inspired by" Hafiz. Or, if you prefer a broader interpretation, you could say Ladinsky channels Hafiz. But his "translations" are not the historical writings of Hafiz. From the more limited scholar's definition, these are poems by Daniel Ladinsky, not Hafiz.

So here's what I do: I enjoy Ladinsky's playful, profound poetry, but I look to other books to savor the historical poetry of Hafiz that Sufis and seekers have delighted in for centuries.

For some English versions of the historical Hafiz poetry, click here.

--

...Still, you have to love rogue-poems like this, don't you?

Ivan

 

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