24-AUG-2008
LIKE PASSIONATE LIPS
There are
So many positions of
Love:
Each curve on a branch,
The thousand different ways
Your eyes can embrace us,
The infinite shapes your
Mind can draw,
The spring
Orchestra of scents,
The currents of light combusting
Like passionate lips,
The revolution of Existence's skirt
Whose folds contain other worlds,
Your every sigh that falls against
His inconceivable
Omnipresent
Body.
(Hafiz)
'The Gift' Poems by Hafiz - translations by Daniel Ladinsky
23-MAY-2008
IT CUTS THE PLOW REINS
What does Purity do?
It cuts the plow reins.
It frees you from working and dining
In the mud.
It frees you from living behind
A big ox
That is always breaking wind.
What can Purity do, my dear?
It can lift your heart
On a rising, bucking Sun
That makes the soul hunger
To reach the roof of Creation.
It offers what the whole world wants-
Real Knowledge and Power.
It offers what the wise crave-
The priceless treasure of Freedom.
Pure Divine Love is no meek priest
Or tight banker.
It will smash all your windows
And only then throw in the holy gifts.
It will allow you to befriend
Life and light and sanity-
And not even mind waking
To another day.
It reveals the excitement of the Present
And the beauty of Precision.
It confers vitality and a sublime clarity
Until finally all the heart can do
Is burst open
With great love and laughter!
O Purity,
O dear Truth and Friend within me,
Why didn't you tell me sooner
You could do all this-
Cut the reins of illusion,
So we can all
Just go wild
Loving God
And everyone all day!
(Hafiz)
'I Heard God Laughing' by Daniel Ladinsky
22-MAR-2008
THERE
There
I bow my head-
At the feet of every creature.
This constant submission and homage,
Of kissing God
All over,
Some day,
Every lover will
Do.
Only
There I prostrate myself-
Against the beauty of each form-
For when I bring
My heart close to any object
I always hear the Friend
Say,
"Hafiz, I am
Here."
(Hafiz)
'The Gift' Poems by Hafiz - translations by Daniel Ladinsky
12-OCT-2008
STARTLED BY GOD
Not like
A lone beautiful bird
These poems now rise in great white flocks
Against my mind's vast hills
Startled by God
Breaking a branch
When His foot
Touches
Earth
Near
Me.
(Hafiz)
'The Gift' Poems by Hafiz - translations by Daniel Ladinsky
31-OCT-2008
YOU'RE IT
God
Disguised
As a myriad things and
Playing a game
Of tag
Has kissed you and said,
"You're it -
I mean, you're Really IT!"
Now
It does not matter
What you believe or feel
For something wonderful,
Major-league Wonderful
Is someday going
To
Happen.
(Hafiz)
'The Gift' Poems by Hafiz - translations by Daniel Ladinsky
15-JUN-2008
JOIN ME IN THE PURE ATMOSPHERE
I slip in and out of the Sea at night with this
Amazed soul I have.
I am like a magnificent, magic ocean turtle
Who sets aside his vast wings of
Blue effulgence
When I crawl upon your shores
To leave my divine seed of verse.
Let me remain cryptic tonight
All the way till dawn
As I orbit God
In this holy, ecstatic mood.
Grab hold of the corners
Of my luminous, tender shell
And I will whirl for you,
For I am covered with eminent crystals
That I have gathered from the infinite depths
Of love.
Follow my tracks in the sand that lead
Beyond thought and space,
For I can see deep down
That you are really a golden bird
That needs to
Dance
With your spirit enraptured and ascending
On the currents of Light-
On the currents of His
Breath.
Join me with your hands, wings, hoofs or fins
In my sublime applause.
Join me in the pure atmosphere of gratitude
For life.
I slip in and out of the Moon each night
With a gracious ease
With this brilliant heart I have.
The Beautiful Friend, the Exquisite One,
Sometimes steps from His Invisible Body
And walks upon our shore
So that we might see and know
His Radiant Tender Shell-
His eminent crowns
That are the three worlds.
O grab hold of the hem of His skirt
As He spins this Universe on an emerald
Dance floor!
Cling to the Transcendent Elements in His glance
As the Beloved forever whirls
His Love.
Hafiz
Slips in and out of God at night
Tied to his own amazed
Soul.
(Hafiz)
'The Subject Tonight Is Love' by Daniel Ladinsky
20-JUN-2008
THE GUARDIANS OF HIS BEAUTY
We are the guardians of His Beauty.
We are the protectors
Of the Sun.
There is only one reason
We have followed God into this world:
To encourage laughter, freedom, dance
And love.
Let a noble cry inside of you speak to me
Saying,
"Hafiz,
Don't just sit there on the moon tonight
Doing nothing-
Help unfurl my heart into the Friend's Mind,
Help, Old Man, to heal my wounded wings!"
We are the companions of His Beauty.
We are the guardians
Of Truth.
Every man, plant and creature in Existence,
Every woman, child, vein and note
Is a servant of our Beloved-
A harbinger of joy,
The harbinger of
Light.
(Hafiz)
'The Subject Tonight Is Love' by Daniel Ladinsky
03-OCT-2008
A ROOT IN EACH ACT AND CREATURE
The sun's eyes are painting fields again.
Its lashes with expert strokes
Are sweeping across the land.
A great palette of light has embraced
This earth.
Hafiz, if just a little clay and water
Mixed in His bowl
Can yield such exquisite scents, sights,
Music - and whirling forms -
What unspeakable wonders must await with
The commencement of unfolding
Of the infinite number of petals
That are the
Soul.
What excitement will renew your body
When we all begin to see
That His heart resides in
Everything?
God has a root in each act and creature
That He draws His mysterious
Divine life from.
His eyes are painting fields again.
The Beloved with His own hands is tending,
Raising like a precious child,
Himself in
You.
(Hafiz)
'The Gift' Poems by Hafiz - translations by Daniel Ladinsky
19-JUN-2008
AND FOR NO REASON
And
For no reason
I start skipping like a child.
And
For no reason
I turn into a leaf
That is carried so high
I kiss the Sun's mouth
And dissolve.
And
For no reason
A thousand birds
Choose my head for a conference table,
Start passing their
Cup of wine
And their wild songbooks all around.
And
For every reason in existence
I begin eternally,
To eternally laugh and love!
When I turn into a leaf
And start dancing,
I run to kiss our beautiful Friend
And I dissolve in the Truth
That I Am.
(Hafiz)
'The Gift' Poems by Hafiz - translations by Daniel Ladinsky
03-OCT-2008
ZIKR
Remembrance lowers the cup into
His luminous sky-well.
The mind often becomes plagued and can deny
The all-pervading beauty
Of God.
When the great work of zikr (remembrance)
Is forgotten.
I have chained my every dancing atom
Into a divine seat in the Beloved's Tavern.
What I have learned
I am so eager to share:
Every ill will confess
It was just a lie
When the golden efforts of your love
Lift the precious wine
To your mouth.
Remembrance of our dear Friend
Lower's the soul's chalice
Into God.
Look, my sweet efforts and His Sublime Grace
Have now turned Creation into a single finger
On my hand
And from the vast reservoirs
In my heart and palms
Hafiz offers
God.
(Hafiz)
'The Gift' Poems by Hafiz - translations by Daniel Ladinsky
03-OCT-2008
WHAT DO WHITE BIRDS SAY
The earth has disappeared beneath my feet,
It fled from all my ecstasy,
Now like a singing creature
I feel the rose
Keep opening.
My heart turned to effulgent wings.
When has love not given freedom?
When has adoration not made one free?
A woman broken in tears and sweat
Stands in a field
Watching the sun and me
Trade jokes.
But never would Hafiz laugh
At your blessed labor
Of finding peace.
What do the dancing white birds say
Looking down upon burnt meadows?
All that you think is rain is not.
Behind the veil Hafiz and angels sometimes weep
Because most eyes are rarely glad
And your divine beauty is still too frightened
To unfurl its thousand swaying arms.
The earth has disappeared beneath my feet,
Illusion fled from all my ecstasy.
Now like a radiant sky creature
God keeps opening,
God keeps opening
Inside of
Me.
(Hafiz)
'The Gift' Poems by Hafiz - translations by Daniel Ladinsky
05-AUG-2008
Just as a normal man can climb
A high mountain
And on a clear day
See for many miles all around,
Hafiz can stand on a blessed peak
Inside his heart
And see for hundreds of years
In all directions.
And I tell you, dear ones,
That the Saheb-e-Zaman,
The Christ,
The Prophet,
The Ancient One,
Has made a date to Whirl,
To Whirl
With this Earth again!
(Hafiz)
'I Heard God Laughing' by Daniel Ladinsky
