Customer Reviews

The Subject Tonight Is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz (Compass)

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

It is rare to find a book of poetry-or any book- that lifts the spirits and touches the heart as deeply as this one. Daniel Ladinsky's translations of the Sufi poet Hafiz are a unique blend of contempoary images and Persisan motifs that evoke scenes that readers will recognize in their own lives. Hafiz, Iran's most treasured poet, is known for an uncanny ability to speak directly to the reader's concerns.His poems have the ability to console the heart throbbing with longing or aching after a few hard knocks.I would especially recommend it for those bouts of Seasonal Affective Disorder that afflict many of us this time of year. I carried this book around with me on the subway during an especially cold winter in New York City and it seemed to transmit a warm, tingly feeling, like a glass of good wine, that warded off the intrusion of depressing thoughts.
One poem in particuar was helpful which said;
Don't surrender your loneliness
So quickly
Let it cut more deep. Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can
Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice
So tender,
My need of God
Absolutely
Clear.

Only a wise old master like Hafiz could give advice like that, in a few choise words that are the equilavent in confort to hours of professional counseling or several trips to the spa. His poetry gives us an appreciation of the wonderful gifts of the soul that we all possess, but rarely take the trouble to access. This book would be a wonderful gift for anyone and especially for youself!.

Hafiz... each piece falls like rain,like buttery light,like a gentle knowing laugh and like quiet gems.. jeez... as a writer I am dumbfounded by his infallable heart and purely penetrative selection of the word.... I'd surely like to share my prayer mat with him when those days come to me....

do not pass go folks... read it by candle light or thrum of rain while your lover looks on... or the silent room embraces you... hafiz is a master.

this is one of the best collection of poems i have ever read. it helps to bring Hafiz's work to a wider audience.the best poem deals with ego and its annihilation. happy reading!

This was the 2nd collection of Daniel Ladinsky's translations of Hafiz that I read. As with "I Heard God Laughing," this one is gorgeous. Ladinsky translates Hafiz in a way that no one else manages to do, conveying his exuberance and outrageousness. What a place Hafiz can take you to, across time and culture, when he is translated as he deserves. This is another "must have" book.

A lifelong fan (dare I say devoted?) to Hafiz and his many works, this book is a must have. Nothing compares to reading Hafiz in Persian, but this book comes very, very close. Hafiz is enlightening, spiritual, refreshing, and above all, very full of wisdom. His works are truly magical, especially considering after all these years, people are still compelled to his work and mystified by his writings. Classic.

The wisdom of a disciple of a living Master rings through this awe-filled version of Hafiz. It's obvious that one who has experienced first hand the miracle of a Master/Disciple relationship can write such beauty. Is this Hafiz' experience or your own, Daniel? You have reminded those who seek the "highest love affair" of all...

I read some of the poems aloud to my meditation group, and we were by turns marveling in awe and rolling with laughter. Hafiz's sensual and deeply emotional spirituality is a revelation, especially to those brought up with the Christian notion of god as a loving but austerely remote force. And the translations are fun, outrageous, very contemporary. You'll love this book, whatever your spiritual or religious preference is.

Hafiz is, together with Rumi, simply one of the greatest poets to have walked on this earth (in my opinion), and Ladinsky's translations bring them to English speakers in a way that we can easliy and deliciously assimilate. This book of enlightening poems will make your soul glow and shiver with delight, if only you let it...

Read Hafiz any where, any time, in any language.
Take a time to think about it deeply, again, again, and again.
You must try to understand it with your heart, not with your head!
I think no matter in which language is written or translated, Love has only one language.

Once again, Ladinsky claims to be presenting English speaking readers with the work of the great Persian poet Hafiz, and once again, he hasn't felt the need to actually learn Persian or actually base these works on any previous translation of any poem by Hafiz. These are the poems that Ladinsky imagines Hafiz might have written had he been a twentieth century baby boomer Californian disciple of Meher Baba, instead of a 14th century Persian Sufi Muslim. Ladinsky believes (or claims to believe) that Hafiz told him these poems. If so, the afterlife hasn't done anything for the great poet's literary talent.