Customer Reviews

The Angels Knocking on the Tavern Door: Thirty Poems of Hafez

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As a white male growing up in Minnesota I would not ordinarily be exposed to Hafez poetry. Fortunately we have Robert Bly. Another wonderful set of translations. These poems stretch me. I don't get them all but I'm sure glad I've read them. Robert Bly's a master at turning something foreign into something accessible.

While the book refers to angels knocking at the tavern door- you and an I, at least potentially, are regulars at such a tavern. Thus the angels are knocking at our door, and Hafez's poetry is knocking at the door of our hearts.

Having read a number of books about Hafez before, I was pleased to find some poems in translation that I had not read before. I am sure that the sense of wonder and joy I get from good translations of Hafez, as if he were right in the room with me and speaking to me, contributed to my sense that the book could have been longer. More poems! Let me drink from that wine goblet again!

I noted that the authors were quite rigorous in their scholarship and in their approach to translation. While it is true that the original words in Farsi may have layers of meaning, alternative meanings, and may have cultural, spiritual and historical references the reader who is not familiar with Hafez''s world may not perceive, I also feel it is possible to convey the essence of Hafez in English. I believe that has been accomplished here.

The only thing that would have improved this book for me would have been to have the poems in their original language on the facing pages.