Customer Reviews

The Gift

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Hafiz has long been one of my favorite poets. I first discovered him when I was in college via Goethe and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and I've been readng his poems ever since. Since I am (alas!) without Parsi, I'm unable to read Hafiz in the original, and must rely upon the kindness of translators.

Daniel Ladinsky has done an interesting job of rendering Hafiz's verse into English. Ladinsky has an ear for rhythm and he strikes me as an individual with deep spiritual sensibilities. When he renders one of Hafiz's couplets as "The body a tree./God a wind", one senses that there's more going into this translation than just philological expertise. Landinsky, like Hafiz, is a mystic.

That spiritual bond with Hafiz, as well as a shared joy in the sheer vitality of creation, makes Landinsky's renderings light-hearted, in the sense that they shimmer with what Hafiz would call God's Light. Some of my favorite examples: "Whenever/God lays His glance/Life starts/Clapping"; "What is the beginning of/Happiness?/It is to stop being/So religious"; "All the talents of God are within you./How could this be otherwise/When your soul/Derived from His/Genes!"

But while I can appreciate the lyrical way in which Ladinsky trys to express Hafiz's insights, I do wonder about the reliability of the translations. They're loaded with modernisms that are somewhat grating after a while: we're derived from God's "genes," the sun is "in drag," characters in the poems "dig potatoes," the soul visits a "summer camp." Moreover, many of the renderings make Hafiz sound suspiciously like a Zen master throwing out koans (an obvious example of this is the poem Ladinsky titles ""Two Giant Fat People".) To his credit, Landinsky freely admits in his translator's preface that he's "taken the liberty to play a few of [Hafiz's] lines through a late-night jazz sax instead of from a morning temple drum or lyre." But he's unapologetic, claiming that the translator's job is to help Hafiz's spirit "come across" to the Parsi-less reader, and that this demands a free rendering.

I'm not so sure. This attitude strikes me as rather patronizing to the reader and disloyal to Hafiz himself. So my bottom line is this: Ladinsky's book is a good read on both poetical and spiritual grounds. But I'm forever left in doubt as to whether I'm reading Ladinsky or Hafiz.

Living in Iran years ago, I first encountered the poet Hafiz as a beloved Iranian folk figure. I have read with pleasure and an open heart many versions of his poems, both in Persian (Farsi) and in English. It was with high expectations because of reviews that I bought this book, only to find Mr. Ladinsky's poems literally unrelated to the original Hafiz. Instead, based on his own explanation, they appear to be simply a product of his imagination. The author has no background in Iranian culture and speaks no Persian. Instead, he obviously uses the commercially successful style of Coleman Barks (of Rumi notoriety) by reading someone else's word-for-word translation and then creating new verses, the intent being to "capture the spirit" of the original. But these verses are so distant from Hafiz that one wonders how they qualify even as "renderings," an amorphous term for Mr. Barks' practice that allows the bypassing of usual literary standards.

Rendering is much less demanding intellectually than translating as well as an easier way of becoming published, and it contains a built-in literary defense mechanism (the plea of subjectivity) against criticism for poor scholarship or inauthenticity. Rendering is not new. Before the Iranian Revolution, one task of Iranian academia was the separation of authentic work of Hafiz from a mass of imitation poetry falsely attributed to him. Now comes this work that bears substantially more resemblance to the tone of Mr. Barks, its apparent stylistic model, than to Hafiz. Even giving the author the benefit of the doubt for sincere devotion and industry, this book and his other two similar works best fit into the category of "spiritual opportunism."

This phrase, "spiritual opportunism," appeared recently in a national article about several authors (Andrews, Rampa, Morgan, et al.) who have written about mystical customs (Native American, Tibetan and Australian Aboriginal) in such a way that they now are accused of appropriating other cultures' spiritual traditions, either through ignorance or for the purpose of personal gain. Mr. Ladinsky's work seems to take appropriation even further than the others. Not only does it superficially represent a spiritual tradition of a subjected foreign culture, it actually offers self-created verse as representative of a specific poet. Even though Iranians lack a voice to make their great poets known in an authentic manner within the current culture of pop spirituality, no amount of commercial success can disguise the truth that this book is a misrepresentation of the poetry of Hafiz and that it does a grave disservice to Iranian poetry and spiritual traditions.

Like millions of Persians I sat on my grandfather's knee and listened to Rumi and Hafez. I was and am struck by what I have read in The Gift. Are these Hafez's poems or are they just Ladinsky's? The essence of Hafez is truth, beauty, humor, endearment to the Self, and light, above all - a freeing whirling light. With that in mind, after some soul searching, I must admit this book is wonderful, a unique portrait of Hafez. I have never seen this great Persian Master more glorious in the English language.

I thought I might step into the middle of a blurb/reader's review war that seems active, at times, around this book.

There is an essay I wrote and published in an earlier edition of the "The Subject Tonight Is Love: Sixty Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz," VERSIONS by Daniel Ladinsky, that was called -- My Portrait of Hafiz, as that is what I feel my work with Hafiz really is, my unique portrait of him. A portrait based on my study of thousands of pages of stories and poems that are attributed to Hafiz. And this book "The Gift" was first offered to Penguin with the word VERSIONS on the cover rather than the word translations, for I have never claimed my work with Hafiz is a traditional -- scholarly -- translation, for how could it be for I do not know or speak Farsi (Persian) at all fluently, though at times I have worked with several translators who do know Farsi as their first language. Though once the book (The Gift) got to Penguin, that is into the hands and minds of the very literate, some there saw and knew -- as any good dictionary will tell you -- that a primary definition of the word translation is: "A written or spoken rendering, an interpretation of the significance of a work in another language..." And thus the word VERSIONS was changed to translations. Also, I feel that the deeper one gets into the study of Hafiz the less of a scholarly foundation there really is to have any intelligent debate about what he may or may not have actually said; thus all we truly have of Hafiz in ANY language is a VERSION. We unfortunately don't even know when Hafiz was actually born or when he died. No doubt there is the establishment's view of Hafiz, but I have never been one to fully trust a bunch of religious or cerebral conservatives. My great research into Hafiz has revealed, what I feel, is enough genuine DNA to reconstruct Hafiz if you will into a more astounding, brilliant man, into a more wild and vital life giving -- encompassing sun. I love these words that are attributed to Hafiz, I have found them so encouraging in trying to do justice to this world-treasured poet, those words are, "No one could ever paint a too wonderful picture of my heart or God."

I feel there are saints in this world, and I feel I have walked with one for hundreds of miles in India, and on many occasions he would listen to me recite my renderings/versions of Hafiz, as a matter of fact this teacher choreographed my coming to work with the poems of Hafiz. And if this man had not sanctioned me in the most remarkable of ways -- not one single book of mine would ever have been published. Hafiz is not only one of Islam's greatest literary wonders, Hafiz is also one of history's most vital poet-seers. I feel I have shown the greatest of respect to his work. I have prayed hundreds of times for help to try and reveal something of Hafiz's soul & beauty.

"Hafiz has no peer." Said Goethe. And Ralph Waldo Emerson stated, "Hafiz is a poet for poets." I hope you find some REAL POETRY in some book of Hafiz, for then you will agree with Goethe and Emerson. Then, in that book, you will find a great teacher and lasting friend. And then ... you can be saved by a poem whenever you want. But remember, any verse that cannot flirt with the sublime and comfort you -- or lift the corners of your mouth with delightful humor -- has really nothing to do wtih HAFIZ. Anything mediocre about him is really fraud.

Thanks for your time here. I hope what I have written may help the review-war ebb. I hope this book aids all wars to realize the insanity of their being. With that in mind why not end with this verse I bet Hafiz might feel just fine in having his named pinned to by me.

I think this old great Persian Master and I once shared some bread together, and some magnificent wine he poured into me, that is still there and fermenting ... and caused all my words, vision, and (hopefully) sacred needed mischief. Millions have now come to hear his name through my work. This is profoundly humbling. Still though, I -- we -- should rise and dance.

"I have come into this world to see this:
The sword drop from men's hands
even at the height of their arc of anger
because we have finally realized
there is just one flesh to wound and that
is His, The Christ's -- our Beloved's."


From my Hafiz chapter, in my Penguin anthology, Love Poems from God.
By Daniel Ladinsky

This book of verse is a blessing and a gift - you may find yourself purchasing it more than once - it's not the kind of book you just keep to yourself.
I really believe Daniel Ladinsky is to Hafiz what Coleman Barks is to Rumi, i.e., he is the only soul who seems to understand how to make Hafiz sing in English. A translation is always a collaboration between the poet and the translator. I understand some of Persian descent object to Ladinsky's translations; I'm no experrt on the original Farsi, but perhaps those critics were less familiar than Ladinsky with idiomatic English? I have read other translations and they didn't compare.
Or perhaps you should judge for yourself; I liked this one enough to memorize it:

Even after
all these years,
the Sun never says
to the earth
"You owe me."
Look what happens -
with a love like that,
it lights the whole sky.

This is a book of poetry that is inspired by the love-songs of the Persian poet, Hafiz who lived in the 1300s... there is no way to capture all the subtleties of the original Persian in English, it can't be done, though people have tried for centuries. Ladinsky's solution is to try to express his understanding of the spirit of Hafiz, disregarding the form, and in some of these poems it seems like he is actually "channeling" Hafiz -- vibrant,heartfelt, raucous, compassionate, drunk with love, desperate with longing for the Beloved, who may be reflected in a person but is certainly Divinity itself.

The reviewer from Berkeley below criticized the very informative introduction to Hafiz's life, but his criticism is incorrect- he has confused Hafiz's master, Mohammed Attar, with the Sufi poet Fariduddin Attar, who lived 100 years earlier. Meher Baba, who is quoted in the introduction, is not a Sufi master, but a spiritual figure from India who lived in the 20th century and energized all spiritual paths... he wrote a book called "God Speaks" that integrates many mystical systems, and his "Discourses" are the clearest, most direct modern explanations of how to live a spiritual life that I have ever seen. Apparently Hafiz was his favorite poet and is quoted frequently in these works, and Ladinsky uses Meher Baba's insights in his own work.

The reviewer below is correct when he says these are not really translations of Hafiz, and if I had a criticism of this joyful, inspiring book, it would be that Mr. Ladinsky should have called them "Renderings" as he did in his earlier collection, because they seem to be new poems inspired by Hafiz rather than attempts to accurately translate the ghazals (love-songs). But they are clearly animated by the breath of that magnificent Persian poet.

Yes, Hafez is the greatest Persian-language poet outselling the Koran in Iran!

No, Hafez's poetry cannot be translated: it is both beautiful (in Persian) and meaningful. Translations can only hope to capture one of those traits.

Yes, Ladinsky's book is not a word-for-word (or poem-by-poem) translation.

However, he captures the essence of Hafez with beautiful verse. I read Hafez in Persian all the time, and enjoy Ladinsky almost as much!

Go Hafez! Thank you, Ladinsky.

I have fallen in love with Hafiz . . . this work is so transformative and reaches so deep into my heart, all I need to do is put out my question, open the book, and find the answer so clearly and beautifully written . .

The poems in this book are ALL originals by Daniel Ladinsky. They have no connection at all with any poems ever written by Hafez.

This fact is, by now, admitted. The crucial item is that Daniel Ladinsky cannot read Persian (Farsi) -- that is, he cannot read the poems which he claims to have "translated."

So, the fans of "The Gift" will have to give up bragging at cocktail parties that they JUST LOVE THE POETRY OF HAFEZ.

Well, they don't know the poetry of Hafez. The poetry of Hafez looks like this:

---------------------------------------

Hafez: Ghazel # 1

O Boy! Pour the wine! Then pour it again:
At first love seemed easy, but then came the pain.

The scent of his locks, lovely musk in the dawn,
Arouses your longing -- and then your heart's gone.

The Master saith: "Stain your prayer-mat with wine!"
His knowledge is deep, and his guidance divine.

Pitch camp in his heart?! What rest will you know?
When dawn splits the sky, away you must go!

Dark night, crashing seas, the dread whirlpool's roar:
How can they know this, at ease on the shore?

I followed my will; it brought me disgrace:
No secret that, for it's thrown in my face.

Are you longing, Hafez, for his presence?
Don't wander away, but stay in attendance.

And when you behold his beloved face,
You can leave this world of time and space.

(Note for Amazon: translation done by me, and not copyright.)
------------------
Have fun looking for this in the works of Daniel Ladinski.

While I can possibly appreciate "The Gift" as an introduction to Persian/Sufi poetry for non-Persian speakers (with an interest in Western versions of "new age," re-oriented sufism), the book falls very short on accuracy. As a scholarly work for any serious student of Persian poetry, it is completely worthless. This is not a book of "translations," as Ladinsky states. Rather it is a book of Ladinsky's renditions of other peoples translations of Hafez' work. Not only are the meter and the rhyme of Hafez completely lost, but he does not even stay true to the meanings and feelings that Hafez inspires. There are, admittedly, a couple of poems in Ladinsky's collection that are quite nice, but they are a far cry from the genius of Hafez.

Some reviewers have put Ladinsky's Hafez in the same category as Coleman Barks'renditions of Rumi. Although neither author has even a working knowledge of Farsi (Persian), and both rely on others' actual translations in coming up with their renditions, this is not a fair comparison. Barks' work has stayed much truer to Rumi's meaning, even if the style and meter are lost. Furthermore, one cannot even begin to cross-reference Ladinsky's versions of Hafez' work with the originals in the Divan-e Hafez (in Farsi) because he does not follow the standards for locating the qazals (a type of Persian poem) either by page number or alphabetically.

The author, then, cannot possibly be called a scholar of Hafez or Persian poetry. Translating the work of Hafez is a major feat, but deserves to be undertaken with great care.

I would read this book more as perhaps a "Hafez-inspired" book of poems by Daniel Ladinsky, but to call it a translation is a misrepresentation.