by Dick Davis
SUPPOSE A BREEZE SHOULD BRING TO ME
SWEET BREEZE RETURN TO ME, YOU BEAR
THE ROSES HAVE ALL GONE; “GOODBYE,” WE SAY; WE MUST;
TO SEE THE BLOSSOM OF HIS FACE, MY HEART – HOW SWEET;
WHAT HAS THIS LIFE WE LONG FOR GIVEN ME? TELL ME.
WHEN SOMEONE IS IMPRISONED FOR A WHILE
WHEREVER MY EYES LOOK I SEE YOUR IMAGE THERE,
WHY IS IT YOU NEGLECT ME SO? WHY IS IT
WHY, IN YOUR HEART, HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ME
YOU DON’T KNOW HOW YOU OUGHT TO TREAT A LOVER,
YOU WANDERED THROUGH MY GARDEN, NAKED AND ALONE –
YOUR FACE IS LIKE A SHINING SUN,
YOUR FACE USURPS THE FIERY GLOW AND HUE
YOUR FACE’S ABSENCE LEAVES MINE WAXY-WHITE,
OBAYD-E ZAKANI
ABU ES’HAQ, WORLD’S LORD, AT WHOSE COMMAND
AFTER FORTY YOUR SPRIGHTLY DAYS ARE DONE,
ALTHOUGH THE ASS CAN BE ENTICING AND ATTRACTIVE
AN INDIVIDUAL FUCKED WITH ALL HIS MIGHT
COME, LISTEN TO MY TALE, IF YOU’RE DISCERNING
DEVIL, AND THEN ANGEL – IS IT THE SAME YOU?
HER PUSSY HAD THE KINDNESS TO INVITE
HERE IN OUR CORNER, WRETCHED AND UNDONE,
I’D LIKE A BOY TO FUCK – BUT I CAN’T PAY;
I’LL FIX THIS HANGOVER, THEN FIND A WHORE
I’M OFF TO STROLL THROUGH THE BAZAAR – AND THERE
I’VE DEBTS, AND NOTHING ELSE: ENDLESS
I’VE SET OUT FROM SHIRAZ, I’VE PUT
IF THAT FULL MOON WERE TRUE AND GOOD,
IN ARTS AND SCIENCES, DON’T TRY TO BE A MASTER,
IT’S SUMMER, AND MY PRICK’S TOO HOT TODAY,
MY HEART STILL HANKERS AFTER HER,
MY HURT HEART’S TALES, MY NIGHTS’ TRAVAILS, AH, WHERE
MY PRETTY DEAR, YOU’RE STILL TOO YOUNG TO MAKE
MY PRICK’S A CYPRESS THAT GROWS TALL AND STRAIGHT
O GOD, SOLE HELP OF MEN IN MISERY,
PUSSY REMARKED, “THIS PRICK’S A MASTERPIECE,
RAMADAN’S COME – THE TIME FOR PASSING WINE AROUND
SOME ARE ON FIRE FOR FAITH’S SAKE, SOME TO SEE
THE BREEZE OF MOSALLA, AND ROKNABAD’S
THIS NONSENSE-SPOUTING DOCTOR COULDN’T SEE
THIS TOOL OF MINE THAT’S TALLER THAN OUR MINARET
TRY HARD TO HAVE MEN MAKE A FUSS OF YOU
WELL, ONCE UPON A TIME, IN DRIBS AND DRABS,
WHERE IS SHIRAZ’S WINE, THAT BURNED OUR GRIEF AWAY?
Index of Persian First Lines
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book.
128
60
108
10
15
94
1
74
133
84
9
18
26
22
62
132
116
14
124
66
20
38
56
46
33
104
110
31
100
40
44
70
102
112
28
12
4
42
92
72
32
80
118
54
8
128
53
132
34
114
64
106
88
5
16
96
86
50
36
120
69
82
90
98
48
132
122
24
126
68
52
133
2
78
58
76
45
6
29
193
192
188
189
161
138
149
185
188
185
190
179
180
139
189
186
155
156
176
182
170
154
191
172
187
191
173
190
136
168
171
174
152
183
140
183
142
146
181
186
187
135
193
148
164
150
158
144
182
181
192
184
163
184
175
139
177
166
162
201
208
203
204
211
211
210
206
213
208
203
209
205
207
196
204
198
206
212
209
207
210
202
205
217
213
199
212
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1. Sirus Shamisa, Sayr-e ghazal dar sh`r-e farsi az aghaz ta emruz (Tehran: Entesharat-e Ferdowsi, 1362/1983), p. 34.
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2. A number of critics, including Ernst Curtius in European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, translated by Willard Trask (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), have drawn attention to a considerable continuity of rhetoric and themes between late antique/Hellenistic literature and medieval Islamic literature, and the lyric treatment of pederasty is one instance of many. Whether this is simply a case of Hellenistic literary traditions persisting in the Near East, or the result of the fact that much of Hellenistic rhetoric was itself in origin “Asiatic” (as was acknowledged by the literature itself), or, as seems most likely, some combination of the two, is unclear.
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3. Willem Floor, A Social History of Sexual Relations in Iran (Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 2008).
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4. Hafez’s Divan contains 486 ghazals, and only a fairly small number of other poems. Most writers of ghazals wrote more than this (to take an extreme example, Rumi’s ghazals number over 3,500), and they also tended to write long poems in other forms as well (Rumi’s major work, for example, is his long narrative poem, the Masnavi, in six volumes). Rumi’s prolixity is extraordinary even by the standards of Persian poetry, but for a major Persian poet, Hafez’s oeuvre is almost equally extraordinary in the other direction, for its comparative terseness.
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5. This obscurity was probably a contributory factor in the elaboration of the mystical interpretation of Hafez’s ghazals; if a poem didn’t, at first sight, make sense in an obvious literal way, perhaps it did so in a secret, allegorical one.
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6. Homa Nateq, Hafez: khonyagari, may o shadi (Los Angeles: Ketab Corporation, 2004), pp. 61–79.
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7. Rubai (plural rubaiyat): a four-line epigrammatic poem, usually rhyming aaba, sometimes aaaa.
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8. Writing was considered to belong to the world of public affairs, and also to be an intellectual accomplishment – women were considered to be “private” citizens who had no business in public affairs, as well as being intrinsically without intellectual potential. Another basic, perhaps subconscious, reason for illiteracy among women may be that access to reading and writing confers relative autonomy: once you can read and write, you can communicate with those who are absent/elsewhere – they can speak to you and you can speak to them – and, given the nature of society in Jahan’s time, this was out of the question for most women.
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9. In one rubai, she does however refer to herself as “like Layla” – that is, as the woman of the pair – and her lover as Majnun, the man, though this identification of herself with a feminine heroine from the past is rare.
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10. Hosein Ma`refat (ed.), Divan-e Molana Bos’haq Halaj-e Shirazi, Mashur be At`ameh (Shiraz: Ketab Forushi-e Ma`refat-e Shiraz, 1320/1941), p. 181.
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11. Hasan Javadi, Obeyd-e Zakani: Ethics of the Aristocrats and Other Satirical Works (Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 2008). The quoted definitions are from pp. 63–71.
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12. Interestingly enough, Ernst Curtius, op. cit., p. 116, reports that poetic debates on the same subject were written “in humanistic circles” in eleventh- and twelfth-century Europe.
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13. Monorhyme has, however, flourished in popular music in the last few decades, and again the example of Bob Dylan is relevant. Dylan often uses monorhyme for long stretches of his songs; again Hafez comes to mind in the association of words and music, and also in the way that Dylan’s monorhymes can sometimes seem to lead the “plot” of his songs forward, as can also appear to be happening in some Hafez ghazals. More recently, monorhyme is a staple of both rap and hip-hop.