Hafiz

Lovers think they are searching for the one

Still wondering when wandering will be done

There is only one search beneath the sky

That of the love that merges You and I

And all our books are both the Truth and Lie.

The fourteenth-century Sufi poet Hafiz is the most celebrated poet of the Persian language, and yet his works are not widely read or easily available in English. His message is in the tradition of Rumi and Omar Khayyam, replete with metaphors where the distinctions between the divine and the earthly lover are deliberately vague.

This bouquet of a hundred quatrains is an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of his verse, as their exquisite nature is preserved in Farrukh Dhondy’s masterful translation.