Customer Reviews

New Nightingale, New Rose

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you like either Hafiz or poetry, do NOT buy this book. The translator, Richard Le Gallienne, thinks Hafiz is a traditional love poet and an alcoholic. "Whatever mystical meanings may lie beneath," he writes, "on the surface, at all events, the poems of Hafiz seem easy to understand. [Even] if they should have a secondary significance, most of us will, I think, be content to take them ... as lyrical expressions of joy and sorrow on earth." In other words Mr. Gallienne does not understand Hafiz even slightly. His translation (which is actually a "rendering" of several real translations) is devoid of both insight and appreciation.

If you like poetry, the book is equally bad. Take this: "You little Turk of Shiraz Town / Freebooter of the hearts of men / As beautiful, as says renown, / Are your free booting Turkomen." Or this: "On a journey she is starting / How can I the anguish bear? / Oh the pain of her departing! / May the peace belong to her." In short, the poetry is doggerel, made up of forced rhymes, twisted syntax and meaningless images.

Daniel Ladinsky's sometimes too-hip translations are far better than these 19th century jingles. Avoid them!

To get a deeper insight into Hafiz, or any significant work of literature in a foreign language, more than one translation is usually necessary. Reading this translation by Le Galliene helped me get a better grip on this sublime poetry by this incredible sufi poet. Landinsky is also excellent. Hafiz is too profound to be captured completely by any one translator and I found reading both of these translations helped me better appreciate Hafiz the Man - Hafiz the Poet, as well as the efforts of both translators. Great stuff.

I cannot read Persian but I have heard from people who can that Hafiz, like all great poets, wrote poetry which combines music and different levels of meaning to create something that can leave an indelible impression on the reader. No translation can truly capture that, especially when the languages are as different as English and Persian are. There are many translations of Hafiz that give us some idea of the meaning of his poetry. Many are pretty plodding as literature-the ideas and images are there but no music. At his best, Le Gallienne could transmit a feeling of lyricism and beauty that one doesn't often find in Hafiz translations. For this I feel he is a useful addition to your library if you're trying to study Hafiz.

This a translation that I like to read aloud to myself. It gives much more of a feeling of Hafiz as a lover and a drinker, and it doesn't feel at all old fashioned. It's also a beautiful book. Great cover and design.