The Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty Ghazals from the Diwan of Hafiz (Library of Persian: Text and Contexts in Persian Religions and Spirituality) (Library of ... in Persian Religions and Spirituality) (Paperback)

~ Elizabeth T. Gray (Author), Daryush Shayegan (Introduction)

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Western scholars of classical Persian poetry have frequently felt humbled before the grand ocean of allusions and historical references, stock phrases and metaphors, ever-recurring images and figures, tantalizing integration of rhythm and rhyme and world-play and meaning, from all of which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.

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

Product Description

The Green Sea of Heaven is a groundbreaking work of translation of one of the greatest poets of world literature. Hafiz (14th century) was the unrivalled master of the Persian ghazal, a lyric form roughly equivalent to the English sonnet in length, intensity, and complexity. These fifty ghazals from his Divan (collected works) display Hafiz's poetic genius, expressing his passion for the Divine Beloved and his scandalous (to the Muslim clergy of his day) exaltation of music and wine as vehicles of transcendence and religious ecstasy. This bilingual edition presents the ghazals of Hafiz in language that captures the intensity and complexity of the poet hailed by Persians as 'the tongue of the Invisible' and 'the interpreter of mysteries.'

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Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: White Cloud Press (February 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883991064
• ISBN-13: 978-1883991067
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #603,896 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go Gray, September 9, 2001

By	"yahyam" (USA) - See all my reviews

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.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful work, May 31, 1999

By A Customer

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic translations that are true to the original, January 29, 2007

By	Iran Man (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

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.