The Gift (Paperback)

~ Hafiz (Author), Daniel Ladinsky (Translator) "HAFIZ, whose given name was Shams-ud-din Muhammad (c. 1320-1389), is the most beloved poet of Persia..." (more)
Key Phrases: Muhammad Attar, Perfect One, Meher Baba (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Hafiz, a secret Sufi, came to prominence in his day as a writer of love poems. That love transformed into an all-consuming passion for union with the divine. In The Gift, Daniel Ladinsky bestows on us the impassioned yet whimsical strains of Hafiz's ecstasy. Never forced or awkward, Ladinsky's Hafiz whispers in your ear and pounds in your chest, naming God in a hundred metaphors.

I once asked a bird,
"How is it that you fly in this gravity
Of darkness?"
She responded,
"Love lifts
Me."

Like Fitzgerald's version of Khayyam's Rubaiyat, the language of The Gift strikes a contemporary chord, resonating in the reader's mind and then in the heart. Ladinsky's language is plain, fresh, playful--dancing with an expert cadence that invites and surprises. If it is true, as Hafiz says, that a poet is someone who can pour light into a cup, reading Ladinsky's Hafiz is like gulping down the sun. --Brian Bruya

From Booklist

Less well known in the U.S. than his Sufi predecessor, Rumi, Hafiz (Shams-ud-din Muhammad) is also worthy of attention, and Ladinsky's free translations should help see that he gets it. Hafiz is so beloved in Iran that he outsells the Koran. Many know his verses by heart and recite them with gusto. And gusto is appropriate to this passionate, earthy poet who melds mind, spirit, and body in each of his usually brief pensees. Ladinsky has deliberately chosen a loose and colloquial tone for this collection, which might grate on the nerves of purists but makes Hafiz come vividly alive for the average reader. "You carry / All the ingredients / To turn your life into a nightmare--/ Don't mix them!" he advises, and "Bottom line: / Do not stop playing / These beautiful / Love / Games." Nothing is too human for Hafiz to celebrate, for in humanity he finds the prospect of God. In everything from housework to lovemaking, he celebrates the spiritual possibilities of life. A fine and stirring new presentation of one of the world's great poets. Patricia Monaghan

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Product Details

• Paperback: 333 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Compass; Gift edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140195815
• ISBN-13: 978-0140195811
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,235 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #1 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Middle Eastern > Persian
  #2 in	Books > Religion & Spirituality > Islam > Sufism
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lovely--but is it Hafiz?, May 3, 2002

By	Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

58 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Portrait of Hafiz, April 18, 2005

By	Daniel Ladinsky (Indian Creek Farm) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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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

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique portrait, September 15, 1999

By A Customer

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.