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

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.


My Portrait of Hafiz   April 18, 2005
 47 out of 55 found this review helpful

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 the establishment. My great research into Hafiz has revealed, what I feel, is enough genuine DNA to reconstruct Hafiz if you will into a more genuine, more astounding & brilliant man, a more wild life giving sun... if you will. 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 histroy'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 said, "Hafiz is a poet for poets." I hope some of the divine-juice/wine in some book of Hafiz that is out there (and I am glad there are so many now, by many others) will make you agree with Goethe and Emerson. For then in that book you will find a great, great teacher and lasting friend.

Thanks for your time here. I hope what I have written may help the review-war ebb. I hope this book helps all wars realize the insanity of their being. With that in mind why not end with this Hafiz quote,

"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."

Daniel Ladinsky











A Work of Spiritual Opportunism   August 26, 2000
 36 out of 40 found this review helpful

Living in Iran years ago, I first encountered the poet Hafiz as a beloved Iranian folk figure. I have read with pleasure and an open heart many versions of his poems, both in Persian (Farsi) and in English. It was with high expectations because of reviews that I bought this book, only to find Mr. Ladinsky's poems literally unrelated to the original Hafiz. Instead, based on his own explanation, they appear to be simply a product of his imagination. The author has no background in Iranian culture and speaks no Persian. Instead, he obviously uses the commercially successful style of Coleman Barks (of Rumi notoriety) by reading someone else's word-for-word translation and then creating new verses, the intent being to "capture the spirit" of the original. But these verses are so distant from Hafiz that one wonders how they qualify even as "renderings," an amorphous term for Mr. Barks' practice that allows the bypassing of usual literary standards.

Rendering is much less demanding intellectually than translating as well as an easier way of becoming published, and it contains a built-in literary defense mechanism (the plea of subjectivity) against criticism for poor scholarship or inauthenticity. Rendering is not new. Before the Iranian Revolution, one task of Iranian academia was the separation of authentic work of Hafiz from a mass of imitation poetry falsely attributed to him. Now comes this work that bears substantially more resemblance to the tone of Mr. Barks, its apparent stylistic model, than to Hafiz. Even giving the author the benefit of the doubt for sincere devotion and industry, this book and his other two similar works best fit into the category of "spiritual opportunism."

This phrase, "spiritual opportunism," appeared recently in a national article about several authors (Andrews, Rampa, Morgan, et al.) who have written about mystical customs (Native American, Tibetan and Australian Aboriginal) in such a way that they now are accused of appropriating other cultures' spiritual traditions, either through ignorance or for the purpose of personal gain. Mr. Ladinsky's work seems to take appropriation even further than the others. Not only does it superficially represent a spiritual tradition of a subjected foreign culture, it actually offers self-created verse as representative of a specific poet. Even though Iranians lack a voice to make their great poets known in an authentic manner within the current culture of pop spirituality, no amount of commercial success can disguise the truth that this book is a misrepresentation of the poetry of Hafiz and that it does a grave disservice to Iranian poetry and spiritual traditions.


The Best Hafez "translation"   May 8, 2002
 27 out of 30 found this review helpful

Yes, Hafez is the greatest Persian-language poet outselling the Koran in Iran!

No, Hafez's poetry cannot be translated: it is both beautiful (in Persian) and meaningful. Translations can only hope to capture one of those traits.

Yes, Ladinsky's book is not a word-for-word (or poem-by-poem) translation.

However, he captures the essence of Hafez with beautiful verse. I read Hafez in Persian all the time, and enjoy Ladinsky almost as much!

Go Hafez! Thank you, Ladinsky.


GIFT FROM THE SOUL   January 19, 2000
 20 out of 25 found this review helpful

What a gift of love from Hafiz/Ladinsky-as-Hafiz! One poem says "Hold this book close to your heart for it contains wonderful secrets." There is no doubt that Daniel Ladinsky has "brought through" Hafiz, the great Sufi master, poet, and consummate wordsmith who lived some 700 years ago in Persia. For it takes one to know one. Not only does it take the greatest of beings -- a Hafiz -- to seek to lead in love all would-be lovers of God into themselves, therein to find rubies. It also takes a great-hearted translator and interpreter to bring an author of wonders to life for another time and a different culture.

Hafiz should speak for himself to describe this book. As therapist, he says "Love will turn the mouth of sorrow right side up." As spiritual trickster, he says "Stay near this book, it will stretch out its leg and trip you; you'll fall Into God." As cosmic courier, Hafiz is "Announcing a great bash tonight some of the planets are hosting where the lead singer is God himself." Who could turn down the invitation?

"These poems now rise in great white flocks against my mind's vast hills startled by God..." One can hear Hafiz and Kenneth Patchen singing together in some choir of poets SomeWhere. Or one can see a beatific bumper sticker: "It's no fun when God is not near." One knows, with this book, that "Hafiz will be your companion for life."