The Gift Read online

  All who heard his poetry could easily associate it with their own most cherished experiences of love. The familiar rhythms of the love song, the ghazal, made the poems easy to learn. Before long, his poems were sung all over Persia by people from every walk of life—farmers, craftsmen, scholars, princes, even children.

  Many who knew of Hafiz and enjoyed his poetry had no idea that he was a Sufi. Nor did many people know the spiritual status of his teacher. Like many Sufi masters of his time, Muhammad Attar met with his students in secret, and Hafiz did not reveal his own association with Attar until after his master’s death. In the religious climate of medieval Persia, this secrecy was essential. From time to time, waves of what might be called fanatical fundamentalism swept through the country. To these fundamentalists, it was blasphemy to suggest that any human being could attain perfection or approach direct knowledge of divinity. The Sufi schools were frequently outlawed, and many of their adherents were tried and executed. Those who survived were forced to meet in secret and disguise their teachings in a symbolic language that would not offend the orthodox. This became the language of Sufi poetry. Images of wine and the Tavern came to represent love and the Sufi school; the nightingale and the Rose were the lover and the Beloved. Spiritual students were depicted as clowns, beggars, scoundrels, rogues, courtesans, or intoxicated wayfarers.

  This symbolic language developed gradually over hundreds of years. Hafiz brought it to perfection in his poetry. Even today, people argue about the “true” meaning of his verses—is he simply describing the joy of walking in the garden or speaking symbolically about God’s delight in the material forms of His Creation? Or both? When he praises a wealthy patron or the charms of a young woman, is he really celebrating God, his true Patron and Beloved? Perhaps both. For Hafiz does not see God as separate from the world—wherever there is love, there is the Beloved. The Indian Sufi teacher Inayat Khan explained, “The mission of Hafiz was to express to a fanatical religious world that the presence of God is not to be found only in heaven, but also here on earth.”

  In Persian, Hafiz is sometimes called the Tongue of the Invisible, for so many of his poems seem to be ecstatic and beautiful love songs from God to His beloved world. Hafiz shares his intoxication with the magic and beauty of divine life that pulsates everywhere around us and within us. He urges us to rise on the wings of love. He challenges us to confront and master the strongest forces of our own nature. He encourages us to celebrate even the most ordinary experiences of life as precious divine gifts. He invites us to “awake awhile” and listen to the delightful music of God’s laughter.

  What is this precious love and laughter

  Budding in our hearts?

  It is the glorious sound

  Of a soul waking up!

  ONE

  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.

  LET‘S EAT

  Why

  Just show you God’s menu?

  Hell, we are all

  Starving—

  Let’s

  Eat!

  WHEN THE VIOLIN

  When

  The violin

  Can forgive the past

  It starts singing.

  When the violin can stop worrying

  About the future

  You will become

  Such a drunk laughing nuisance

  That God

  Will then lean down

  And start combing you into

  His

  Hair.

  When the violin can forgive

  Every wound caused by

  Others

  The heart starts

  Singing.

  LOOKING FOR GOOD FISH

  Why complain about life

  If you are looking for good fish

  And have followed some idiot

  Into the middle of the copper market?

  Why go crazy

  If you are looking for fine silk

  And you keep rubbing your hands against

  Burlap and hemp sacks?

  If your heart really needs to touch a face

  That is filled with abundance

  Then why didn’t you come to this

  Old Man sooner?

  For my cheek is the universe’s cloister

  And if you can make your prayers sweet enough

  Tonight

  Then Hafiz will lean over and offer you

  All the warmth in my body

  In case God is busy

  Doing something else

  Somewhere.

  Why complain if you are looking

  To quench your spirit’s longing

  And have followed a rat into a desert.

  If your soul really needs to touch a face

  That is always filled with compassion

  And tenderness

  Then why,

  Why my dear

  Did you not come to your friend Hafiz

  Sooner?

  A HUNTING PARTY

  A

  Hunting party

  Sometimes has a greater chance

  Of flushing love and God

  Out into the open

  Than a warrior

  All

  Alone.

  THIS SANE IDEA

  Let your

  Intelligence begin to rule

  Whenever you sit with others

  Using this sane idea:

  Leave all your cocked guns in a field

  Far from us,

  One of those damn things

  Might go

  Off.

  WE HAVE NOT COME TO TAKE PRISONERS

  We have not come here to take prisoners,

  But to surrender ever more deeply

  To freedom and joy.

  We have not come into this exquisite world

  To hold ourselves hostage from love.

  Run my dear,

  From anything

  That may not strengthen

  Your precious budding wings.

  Run like hell my dear,

  From anyone likely

  To put a sharp knife

  Into the sacred, tender vision

  Of your beautiful heart.

  We have a duty to befriend

  Those aspects of obedience

  That stand outside of our house

  And shout to our reason

  “O please, O please,

  Come out and play.”

  For we have not come here to take prisoners

  Or to confine our wondrous spirits,

  But to experience ever and ever more deeply

  Our divine courage, freedom, and

  Light!

  I CAN SEE ANGELS

  I can

  See angels

  Sitting on your ears,

  Polishing trumpets,

  Replacing lute strings,

  Stretching new skins on the drums

  And gathering wood for the evening’s fire.

  They all danced last night

  But you did not

  Hear them.

  If you ask Hafiz for advice

  On how to befriend their sweet voices

  And how to have the nourishing

  Company of the finer

  Worlds

  I would reply,

  “I could not say anything

  You could not

  Tell me.”

  Then,

  What was the use of this story?

  O,

  I just felt like

  Talking.

  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.

  I RAIN

  I rain

  Because your meadows call

  For God.

  I weave light into words so that

  When your mind holds them

  Your eyes will relinquish their sadness,

  Turn bright, a little brighter, giving to us

  The way a candle does

  To the dark.

  I have wrapped my laughter like a birthday gift

  And left it beside your bed.

  I have planted the wisdom in my heart

  Next to every signpost in the sky.

  A wealthy man

  Often becomes eccentric,

  A divine crazed soul

  Is transformed into infinite generosity

  Tying gold sacks of gratuity

  To the dangling feet of moons, planets, ecstatic

  Midair dervishes, and singing birds.

  I speak

  Because every cell in your body

  Is reaching out

  For God.

  TWO

  I Have Learned So Much

  I

  Have

  Learned

  So much from God

  That I can no longer

  Call

  Myself

  A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,

  A Buddhist, a Jew.

  The Truth has shared so much of Itself

  With me

  That I can no longer call myself

  A man, a woman, an angel,

  Or even pure

  Soul.

  Love has

  Befriended Hafiz so completely

  It has turned to ash

  And freed

  Me

  Of every concept and image

  My mind has ever known.

  GOD JUST CAME NEAR

  No

  One

  In need of love

  Can sit with my verse for

  An hour

  And then walk away without carrying

  Golden tools,

  And feeling that God

  Just came

  Near.

  THE SUN NEVER SAYS

  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

  Whole

  Sky.

  THE SEED CRACKED OPEN

  It used to be

  That when I would wake in the morning

  I could with confidence say,

  “What am ‘I’ going to

  Do?”

  That was before the seed

  Cracked open.

  Now Hafiz is certain:

  There are two of us housed

  In this body,

  Doing the shopping together in the market and

  Tickling each other

  While fixing the evening’s food.

  Now when I awake

  All the internal instruments play the same music:

  “God, what love-mischief can ‘We’ do

  For the world

  Today?”

  WHY JUST ASK THE DONKEY

  Why

  Just ask the donkey in me

  To speak to the donkey in you,

  When I have so many other beautiful animals

  And brilliant colored birds inside

  That are all longing to say something wonderful

  And exciting to your heart?

  Let’s open all the locked doors upon our eyes

  That keep us from knowing the Intelligence

  That begets love

  And a more lively and satisfying conversation

  With the Friend.

  Let’s turn loose our golden falcons

  So that they can meet in the sky

  Where our spirits belong—

  Necking like two

  Hot kids.

  Let’s hold hands and get drunk near the sun

  And sing sweet songs to God

  Until He joins us with a few notes

  From His own sublime lute and drum.

  If you have a better idea

  Of how to pass a lonely night

  After your glands may have performed

  All their little magic

  Then speak up sweethearts, speak up,

  For Hafiz and all the world will listen.

  Why just bring your donkey to me

  Asking for stale hay

  And a boring conference with the idiot

  In regards to this precious matter—

  Such a precious matter as love,

  When I have so many other divine animals

  And brilliant colored birds inside

  That are all longing

  To so sweetly

  Greet

  You!

  WHO WROTE ALL THE M USI C

  Why is it now

  That I come to you like a humble servant

  Willing to feed you brilliant words and love

  From my own sacred mouth and hands,

  Willing to say, “I am sorry,

  I am sorry for all your pain”?

  It is because when God

  Fully revealed Himself in me

  I saw that it was Hafiz

  Who wrote all the music you have been playing.

  I saw it was Hafiz

  Who wrote all your notes of sadness,

  But also etched and gave you

  Every ecstatic wince of joy your face, body,

  And heart has ever known.

  Okay my dear,

  You have stumbled enough in the earth’s sweet dance.

  You have paid all your dues

  Many times.

  Now let’s get down to the real reason

  Why we sit together and breathe

  And begin the laughing, the divine laughing,

  Like great heroic women

  And magnificent

  Strong men.

  YOUR MOTHER AND MY MOTHER

  Fear is the cheapest room in the house.

  I would like to see you living

  In better conditions,

  For your mother and my mother

  Were friends.

  I know the Innkeeper

  In this part of the universe.

  Get some rest tonight,

  Come to my verse again tomorrow.

  We’ll go speak to the Friend together.

  I should not make any promises right now,

  But I know if you

  Pray

  Somewhere in this world—

  Something good will happen.

  God wants to see

  More love and playfulness in your eyes

  For that is your greatest witness to Him.

  Your soul and my soul

  Once sat together in the Beloved’s womb

  Playing footsie.