Hafez (1315 – 1390) was a Persian poet. At an early age he memorized the Quran and was given the title of Hafez (the memorizer, or keeper), which he later used as his pen name. He primarily wrote in the literary genre of lyric poetry, or ghazals. Hafez is the most popular poet in Iran, and his works can be found in almost every Iranian home, where many of his poems are used as proverbs or sayings. Since his work was first translated into English in 1771, it has had a profound effect on many Western writers. Few details of his life are known and there is no definitive version of his collected works.
Quotes by Hafez…
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!
Don’t surrender your loneliness so quickly. Let it cut more deep. Let it ferment and season you as few human or even divine ingredients can. Something missing in my heart tonight has made my eyes so soft, my voice so tender, my need of God absolutely clear.
Even after all this time, the Sun never says to the Earth, “You owe me.” Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the sky.
I am a hole in a flute that the Christ’s Breath moves through. Listen to this music.
This place where you are right now God circled on a map for you. Wherever your eyes and arms and heart can move against the earth and the sky, the Beloved has bowed there. Our Beloved has bowed there knowing you were coming.