Hafiz is the preeminent poet of Persian Sufism and one of the great poets of world literature. The Green Sea of Heaven is regarded as the finest English translation of his poetry. Elizabeth Gray’s translations are informed by her thorough knowledge of Persian and the Persian poetic tradition. (Many recent books attributed to Hafiz have been produced by persons who do not know Persian at all!) This bilingual edition also includes two brilliant studies of Hafiz by Gray and Daryush Shayegan, plus helpful notes to the translation.
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"These are truly remarkable and moving translations: the first English versions of Hafiz to read as poetry while still capturing the unique qualities of concision, multivalent meaning and spiritual depth which have for centuries made his Persian ghazals the acknowledged masterpiece and exemplar of poetic art throughout the Eastern Islamic world." -- James Morris, professor of Islamic thought and literature, Oberlin College
"This is a groundbreaking work, one that places the ghazal of Hafiz into a contemporary English poetic idiom. Ms. Gray captures the rhythms, the paradoxes, the ironies, the sudden changes in tone and voice, the ambiguities, the spark and the bite of the original. After too long a wait, we encounter Hafiz, come alive in an English style that is at once natural and intricate. This is a remarkable achievement." -- Michael Sells, professor of Islamic literature and author of Mystical Languages of the Unsaying
A translation . . . with a tender and poetic care that is both a scholarly and artistic joy. -- The Harvard Review
These are truly remarkable and moving translations. -- James Morris, author of Wisdom of the Throne
This is a groundbreaking work, one that places the ghazal of Hafiz into a contemporary poetic idiom. -- Michael Sells, author of Early Islamic Mysticism
Western scholars of classical Persian poetry have frequently felt humbled before the grand ocean of allusions and historical references, stock phrases and metaphors, ever-recurring images and figures, tantalizing integration of rhythm and rhyme and world-play and meaning, from all of which leaps forth the ghazal--ghazal, the hard-as rock genre of Persian poetry, of which Hafiz of Shiraz is the unparalleled master. To be sure, the very form of this genre is unique to its own milieu: ghazal is a single poem containing within itself a whole multiplicity of vibrating small poems: for each verse of the ghazal, the bayt, is an integral whole, related to other bayts only--at least apparently--by a meter that is fixed and by a rhyme that reappears.
"This is a groundbreaking work, one that places the ghazal of Hafiz into a contemporary English poetic idiom. Ms. Gray captures the rhythms, the paradoxes, the ironies, the sudden changes in tone and voice, the ambiguities, the spark and the bite of the original. After too long a wait, we encounter Hafiz, come alive in an English style that is at once natural and intricate. This is a remarkable achievement." -- Michael Sells, professor of Islamic literature and author of Mystical Languages of the Unsaying
A translation . . . with a tender and poetic care that is both a scholarly and artistic joy. -- The Harvard Review
These are truly remarkable and moving translations. -- James Morris, author of Wisdom of the Throne
This is a groundbreaking work, one that places the ghazal of Hafiz into a contemporary poetic idiom. -- Michael Sells, author of Early Islamic Mysticism
Western scholars of classical Persian poetry have frequently felt humbled before the grand ocean of allusions and historical references, stock phrases and metaphors, ever-recurring images and figures, tantalizing integration of rhythm and rhyme and world-play and meaning, from all of which leaps forth the ghazal--ghazal, the hard-as rock genre of Persian poetry, of which Hafiz of Shiraz is the unparalleled master. To be sure, the very form of this genre is unique to its own milieu: ghazal is a single poem containing within itself a whole multiplicity of vibrating small poems: for each verse of the ghazal, the bayt, is an integral whole, related to other bayts only--at least apparently--by a meter that is fixed and by a rhyme that reappears.
Given all this, translating a Persian ghazal is no easy matter. Steeped in tradition, it requires long curtains of explanatory footnotes hanging from the rod of each translated verse; but how clumsy such an exercise will look! And then, the translator must at once be highly learned in the Persian literary tradition and profoundly skilled in poetic craft. These are the twin requirements for those daring ones who undertake the daunting task.
Here is an English translation of fifty ghazals of the great Hafiz: a translation with a rich flow that is surprising, with a vigilant faithfulness to the original that is commendable, and with a tender and learned poetic care that is both a scholarly and an artistic joy. Elizabeth Gray presents us with a bouquet of Shirazi flowers, blazing in their colors and so fresh. She is to be admired both for her erudition and her verbal skills. And more, we must admire her also for her cultural courage.
The plan of this work is very sensible. First, Gray provides a very useful introduction; here she presents the historical setting in which the 14th century poet Hafiz was composing his ghazals; she explicates the nature of this genre itself, including its formal and technical requirements; she speaks of the challenges faced by a translator; and she utters an authoritative word of caution to the reader: "brandish lightly . . . the templates of Western literary criticism" [!] (p. xxi). Yes, we must heed her advice. Then, she juxtaposes the original Persian text and her translation; and her there exist no footnotes, no heavy curtains, no clumsiness. To be sure, notes do exist--but far removed from the translations, at the end of the book. This was an intelligent structural decision. These notes are minimal, not too extensive, not too pedantic. And they are highly beneficial. In some cases, they constitute packed short essays on some of the most abstruse stylistic, conceptual, and historical elements of the Persian poetic tradition. It seems, then, that the work has wide scope: its magnetism would pull scholars, students, and the enthusiasts alike. -- The Harvard Review, Vol. 8, Spring 1995; pp. 81-85
Language Notes
Text: English, Persian (translation)
Original Language: Persian
Original Language: Persian
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Hafiz of Shiraz was widely regarded as an infidel in his day. Today he is recognized in the East not only for the excellence of his poetry, but also as a Sufi illuminate. His major work, The Diwan, is found beside the Koran in the homes of the devout. In the West, Hafiz--a contemporary of Dante--is admired for his love-poetry; Goethe, among others, acknowledged his influence.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Go Gray,
This review is from: The Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty Ghazals from the Diwan of Hafiz (Library of Persian: Text and Contexts in Persian Religions and Spirituality) (Paperback)
Elizabeth T. Gray is one of the very few translators who can come close to doing justice to Hafiz. Forget Ladinsky; if you want to get an idea what Hafiz really said, get Gray. To correct a misconception, the convention in Sufi poetry is to invoke Allah as a woman, lover of the male human Sufi. That's why so many Sufi poems are about love for women named Layla or Salma. The Sufi vision of God tends to be female. This is more explicit in Arabic Sufi poetry, because Arabic uses gender unlike Persian. Muhyi al-Din ibn al-`Arabi said in Arabic we can call Allah either huwa 'He' or hiya 'She', the latter because the ultimate Divine Essence (al-Dhat) is Feminine. The genderless Persian pronoun leaves an interesting ambiguity that you can't duplicate in English, but by calling God "She," Elizabeth T. Gray is well within the authenticity of the Sufi poetic tradition. I have heard her speak about how she discovered these poems, and read Hafiz aloud; she told of her deep spiritual connection with these poems and the divine love they inspired in her, and of her visit to Hafiz's tomb in Shiraz. The poet himself must be smiling from Heaven upon seeing her presenting his poems to us moderns with such love and care.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic translations that are true to the original,
By Iran Man (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty Ghazals from the Diwan of Hafiz (Library of Persian: Text and Contexts in Persian Religions and Spirituality) (Paperback)
Gray's translations are about as true, in both form and content, to the original as one can get. Unlike other dispensers of Hafiz (like Ladinsky), Gray actually speaks Persian, and follows the Persian closely, instead of finding what she wants to fit fads like new-age spiritualism. The English-facing-Persian format makes the book particularly useful for those who have a basic command of Persian, but are not fluent enough with the language to read exclusively the original texts.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful work,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty Ghazals from the Diwan of Hafiz (Library of Persian: Text and Contexts in Persian Religions and Spirituality) (Paperback)
I really enjoy reading this book. A warning though is in order when one encounters Sufi poetry. Often one might draw a false conclusion from reading Sufi poems that men like Hafez are nothing more than a drunk, alcoholic womanizers who can think of nothing but wine and women and whatever else that comes with these combinations. Those who understand Sufis and Sufi poetry in this manner are most likely projecting their own selves into Hafez and his like. Proper understanding of Sufis is possible only if one takes time to understand their "language", a language which all great Sufis have chosen very carefully to express their inner being, and unlike most modern men, their inner being was/is not confined behind the zipper though this may be impossible to imagine for 21st century men.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
