An unceasing Sound…

An unceasing Sound is

floating down from the heavens,

I wonder how you are engaged

in pursuits of no avail.

Hafiz

My Sweet, Crushed Angel

You have not danced so badly, my dear,

Trying to hold hands with the Beautiful One.

You have waltzed with great style,

My sweet, crushed angel,

To have ever neared God’s Heart at all.

Our Partner is notoriously difficult to follow,

And even His best musicians are not always easy

To hear.

So what if the music has stopped for a while.

So what

If the price of admission to the Divine

Is out of reach tonight.

So what, my dear,

If you do not have the ante to gamble for Real Love.

The mind and body are famous

For holding the heart ransom,

But Hafiz knows the Beloved’s eternal habits.

Have patience,

For He will not be able to resist your longing

For long.

You have not danced so badly, my dear,

Trying to kiss the Beautiful One.

You have actually waltzed with tremendous style,

O my sweet,

Oh my sweet, crushed angel.

Hafiz

How Could a Lover Fall ?

What could have caused your grip to weaken
that allowed creation to be ?

How could a lover fall to his death
from the arms of infinite
strength ?

How active you are in the mind sustaining such a great wall
that the sun can cast a frightening shadow
the world believes.

No one has ever really known sadness. No real God
would ever allow pain.

How then can a heart feel it is broken and in need
if we are held in the arms of infinite
compassion and
strength ?

That mirror you (God) stand before —
we need to gaze into it also.

That name you called Beloved
as I fell from your lips —
I suffer

because I did not quite
hear it;

so tell me again dear One
so clear:

I am
you.

– Hafiz

I wish I could speak like music

I wish I could speak like music.

I wish I could put the swaying splendor
Of the fields into words

So that you could hold Truth
Against your body
And dance.

I am trying the best I can
With this crude brush, the tongue,

To cover you with light.

I wish I could speak like divine music.

I want to give you the sublime rhythms
Of this earth and the sky’s limbs

As they joyously spin and surrender,
Surrender
Against God’s luminous breath.

Hafiz wants you to hold me
Against your precious
Body

And dance,
Dance.

– Hafiz

The Glow of Your Presence

Where have you taken your sweet song?
Come back and play me a tune.

I never really cared for the things of this world.
It was the glow of your presence
that filled it with beauty.

– Hafiz

Faithful Lover

The moon came to me last night
With a sweet question.

She said,

“The sun has been my faithful lover
For millions of years.

Whenever I offer my body to him
Brilliant light pours from his heart.

Thousands then notice my happiness
And delight in pointing
Toward my beauty.

Hafiz,
Is it true that our destiny
Is to turn into Light
Itself?”

And I replied,

Dear moon,
Now that your love is maturing,
We need to sit together
Close like this more often

So I might instruct you
How to become
Who you
Are!

– Hafiz

Spring And All Its Flowers

Spring and all its flowers
now joyously break their vow of silence.
It is time for celebration, not for lying low;
You too – weed out those roots of sadness from your heart.

The Sabaa wind arrives;
and in deep resonance, the flower
passionately rips open its garments,
thrusting itself from itself.

The Way of Truth, learn from the clarity of water,
Learn freedom from the spreading grass.

Pay close attention to the artistry of the Sabaa wind,
that wafts in pollen from afar,
And ripples the beautiful tresses
of the fields of hyacinth flowers.

From the privacy of the harem, the virgin bud slips out,
revealing herself under the morning star,
branding your heart and your faith
with beauty.

And frenzied bulbul flies madly out of the House of Sadness
to unite with the flowers;
its love-crazed cry like a thousand-trumpet blast.

Hafiz says, and the experienced old ones concur:

All you really need
is to tell those Stories
of the Fair Ones and the Goblet of Wine.

– Hafiz

A New World

Let’s offer flowers, pour a cup of libation,
split open the skies and start anew on creation.

If the forces of grief invade our lovers’ veins,
cupbearer and I will wash away this temptation.

With rose water we’ll mellow crimson wine’s bitter cup;
we’ll sugar the fire to sweeten smoke’s emanation.

Take this fine lyre, musician, strike up a love song;
let’s dance, sing all night, go wild in celebration.

As dust, O West Wind, let us rise to the Heavens,
floating free in Creator’s glow of elation.

If mind desires to return while heart cries to stay,
here’s a quarrel for love’s deliberation.

Alas, these words and songs go for naught in this land;
come, Hafez, let’s create a new generation.

– Hafiz

split open the skies and start anew on creation.

The lines of this poem read like lovely poetic embellishments, but there is more going on here than ecstatic wordplay. Beneath the poetry, Hafiz is using precise esoteric language. The “rose” of the rose water. A “fire” that is also sweet. Becoming as egoless as dust before the West Wind… Meanings to contemplate and explore within.

If mind desires to return while heart cries to stay,
here’s a quarrel for love’s deliberation.

The “mind” Hafiz is talking about is the conceptualizing, projecting mind. It is this mind that must be absent (or stilled) before we can see reality directly. When we do this, our sense of self shifts. We no longer imagine ourselves to be the little ego, we find ourselves centered deeply at home within the heart. For the first time we fully recognize the heart as being present.

But — if the mind desires to return once we have discovered the presence of the heart, well, that’s a dilemma… “a quarrel of love’s deliberation.”

come, Hafez, let’s create a new generation.

It Happens All The Time In Heaven

It happens all the time in heaven,
And some day
It will begin to happen
Again on earth –
That men and women who are married,
And men and men who are
Lovers,
And women and women
Who give each other
Light,
Often will get down on their knees
And while so tenderly
Holding their lover’s hand,
With tears in their eyes,
Will sincerely speak, saying,
“My dear,
How can I be more loving to you;
How can I be more
Kind ?”

– Hafiz

The Lute Will Beg…

You need to become a pen
In the Sun´s hand.

We need for the earth to sing
Through our pores and eyes.

The body will again become restless
Until your soul paints all its beauty
Upon the sky.

Don´t tell me, dear ones,
That what Hafiz says is not true,

For when the heart tastes its glorious destiny
And you awake to our constant need
for your love

God´s lute will beg
For your hands.

– Hafiz