16 Ibid., IV, pp. 150–1; 1869, vv. 19706–8, 197013–14. Raw madhhab-i ‘āshiq rā bar-‘aks-i ravishhā dān, Kaz yār durūghīhā, az ṣidq bih u iḥsān. / Ḥāl-ast maḥāl-i ū, muzd-ast vabāl-i ū, ‘Adl-ast hama-yi ẓulmash, dādast buhtān. / Narm-ast durūsht-i ū, Ka‘ba-st kinisht-i ū, Khārī kay khalad dilbar, kwūshtar zih gul u rayḥān. / Gar ta‘na zanī, gū’ī: ‘Tu madhhab-i kazh dārī. Man madhhab-i abrūyash bikhrīdam va dādam jān. / Z’īn madhhab-i kazh mastam, bas kardam u lab bastam, Bar dār-i dil-i rawshan, bāqiyash furū mīkhwān.
17 Ibid., VIII, p. 221, Quatrain 1314. Mā madhhab-i chishm-i shūkh-i mastash dārīm. Kīsh-i sar-i zulf-i butparastash dārīm. / Gūyand: ‘Juz īn har du buvad dīn-i durust.’ Az ‘dīn-i durust’ mā shikastash dārīm.
18 Ibid., VIII, p. 38, Quatrain 225. Mā ‘āshiq-i ‘ishqīm u musalmān digar-ast. Mā mūr-i ḍa‘īfīm u Sulaymān digar-ast. / Az mā rukh-i zard u jigar-pārih ṭalab. Bāzārchih-i qaṣab-furūshān digar-ast.
19 Ibid., VIII, p. 130, Quatrain 767. ‘Āshiq tu yaqīn dān kay Musalmān nabvad. Dar madhhab-i ‘āshiq kufr u īmān nabvad. / Dar ‘ishq, tan u ‘aql u dil u jān nabvad. Har kas kay chinīn nagasht ū ān nabvad.
20 Mathnawī-yi ma‘nawī, ed. Nicholson, II: 1770.
21 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 443: 1. Translation by Robert Bly and Leonard Lewisohn, The Angels Knocking on the Tavern Door, p. 53.
22 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 426: 5. Trans. Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, p. 49.
23 [See also the essay by Leili Anvar in this volume. Ed./trans.]
24 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 10: 8. Rū-yi khūbat āyatī az luṭf bar mā kashf kard. Zān sabab juz luṭf u khūbī nīst dar tafsīr-i mā.
25 Ibid., ghazal 165: 4. Mugh-bachchih-ī mīgudhasht, rahzan-i dīn u dil. Dar pay-i ān āshinā az hama bīgāna shud.
26 As I have explained elsewhere: see my ‘Of Scent and Sweetness: ‘Aṭṭār and his Legacy in Rūmī, Shabistarī and Ḥāfiẓ’, pp. 43–4.
27 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 22: 1–4. Trans. Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, p. 78.
28 Sharḥ-i ‘irfānī ghazalhā-yi Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khurramshāhī et al., I, p. 428.
29 Ibid.
30 Imshab may-i Jām yik manī khvāham kard. Khvud rā bi-raṭl-i may ghanī khvāham kard. / Awwal si ṭalāq ‘aql u dīn khvāham kard. Pas dukhtar-i raz rā bi-zanī khvāham kard.
31 Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, trans. Fitzgerald, ed. Nicholson, Quatrain 40, p. 176.
32 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 119: 7.
33 Ibid., ghazal 193: 6.
34 Ibid., ghazal 312: 1.
35 Ibid., ghazal 213: 2; 426: 6 (madhhab-i ṭarīqat).
36 Ibid., ghazal 133: 10.
37 Ibid., ghazal 119: 7. Trans. Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, p. 48. Sitam az ghamza miyāmūz ki dar madhhab-i ‘ishq. Har ‘amal ujrī va har karda jazā’ī dārad.
38 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 133: 10. Bijuz abrū-yi tu miḥrāb-i dil-i Ḥāfiẓ nīst. Ṭā‘at ghayr-i tu dar madhhab-i mā natavān kard.
39 Ibid., ghazal 48: 4. Varā-yi ṭā‘at-i dīvānagān zi mā maṭalab. Ki shaykh-i madhhab-i mā ‘āqilī guna dānist.
40 Ibid., ghazal 193: 7. Guftam sharāb u khirqa ni āyīn u madhhab-ast. Guft īn ‘amal bi madhhab-i pīr-i mughān kunand.
41 Ibid., ghazal 312: 1. Trans. Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, p. 61. Sālhā payravī madhhab-i rindān kardam, Tā bi-fatwā-yi khirad dīv bi-zindān kardam.
42 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 426: 6. Dar madhhab-i ṭarīqat khāmī nishān-i kufr-ast. Ārī ṭarīq-i dawlat chālakī’st u chastī’st.
43 [Cited by William Chittick, The Vision of Islam, p. 138. Ed./trans.]
44 [Other versions of this ḥadīth read: ‘Every child is born a Muslim...’ See Robinson, The Sayings of Muḥammad, p. 13. The wider theological ramifications of this ḥadīth are explored in D.B. Macdonald, ‘Fiṭra’, EI2, II, pp. 931f. Ed./trans.]
45 The Mathnawí of Jalálu’ddín Rúmí, ed. Nicholson, I: 678–9. Translation by Alan Williams, Rumi, Spiritual Verses: the First Book of the Masnavi-ye Ma‘navi, vv. 682–3, pp. 67–8.
46 Mathnawī, ed. Nicholson, IV: 409–14.
47 Shabistarī, Gulshan-i rāz, ed. Muwaḥḥid, vv. 418, 421, p. 84.
48 Mathnawī, VI: 4541.
49 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 137: 4.
50 Kulliyāt-i Sa'dī, p. 203.
51 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 174: 7 [‘Wildman’ has been used to render qalandar here. Ed./trans.]
52 [On which, see M.G.S. Hodgson, ‘Ibāḥa (II)’, EI2, III, pp. 662–3. Ed./trans.]
53 [There are six instances where Ḥāfiẓ praises the qalandar and qalandarī: see Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazals 79: 7; 366: 2; 389: 8; 479: 3; 174: 7; 442: 6. Ed./trans.]
54 Lā-ubālī chi kunad daftar-i dānā’ī rā. Ṭāqat-i va‘ẓ nabāshad sar-i sawdā’ī rā. / ‘Ashiqān rā chi gham az sarzanash-i dushman u dūst? Yā gham-i dūst khurad ya gham-i rusvā’ī rā. In Kulliyāt-i Sa'dī, p. 417.
55 Gar murīd-i rāh-i ‘ishqī fikr-i badnāmī makan. Shaykh Ṣan‘ān khirqa rahn-i khāna-yi khammar dāsht. In Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 79: 6.
56 Ibid., ghazal 79: 6–7. Waqt-i ān shīrīn-qalandar khvush ki dar aṭvār-i sayr, Dhikr-i tasbīḥ-i malak dar khalqa-i zunnār dāsht.
57 Ibid., ghazal 10: 8.
58 [This idea is well expressed in Blake’s anecdote: ‘Cowper came to me and said: O that I were insane always. I will never rest. Can you not make me truly insane? I will never rest till I am so. O that in the bosom of God I was hid.’ Blake: Complete Writings, p. 772. Ed./trans.]
59 This is the purport of Shakespeare’s verses in sonnet 53: ‘Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit / Is poorly imitated after you; / On Helen’s cheek all art of beauty set / And you in Grecian tires are painted new / Speak of the spring, and the foison of the year: / The one doth shadow of your beauty show, / The other as your bounty doth appear, / And you in every blessed shape we know.’
60 Rūmī, Kulliyāt-i Shams, ed. Furūzānfar, vol. 4, p. 302, ghazal 1620, v. 16957. Havasī-ast dar sar-i man ki sar-i bashar nadāram. Man az īn havas chunānam ki zi khwud khabar nadāram.
61 Dīvān-i ... Sanā’ī, ed. Raḍavī, p. 546. Bā nafasash siḥr-namāyān-i Hind. Dar havasash chihra-gushāyān-i Chīn.
62 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 261: 6. ‘Ishq-bāzī kār-i bāzī nīst ay dil sar bibāz / var na gūyi ‘ishq natvan zad bi-chūgān-i havas.
63 Ibid., ghazal 57: 8. Ni īn zamān dil-i Ḥāfiẓ dar ātash-i havas ast / ki dāghdār-i azal hamchū lālih-i khvudru’ast.
64 Rūmī, Kulliyāt-i Shams, ed. Furūzānfar, vol. 6, pp. 15–16, ghazal 2637, vv. 27975–8. Imrūz samā‘ast u sharāb-ast u ṣurāḥī; yik Sāqī-yi bad-mast, yikī jam‘-i mubāḥī. / Zān jins-i mubāḥī kay az ān sū-yi wujūd-ast; nay ibāḥatī-yi gīj, hashīsh muzhājī. / [Rūḥī’st mubāḥī kay az ān rūḥ chishīda-ast. / Kū rūḥ-i qadīmī u kujā rūḥ-i riyāḥī. / Dar pīsh-i chinīn fitna va dar dast-i chinīn may: Yā Rabb! chih shavad jān-i musalmān-i ṣalāḥī.]
65 See the same ghazal 2637, v. 27986.
66 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 278: 6. Dilā dilālat-i khayrat kunam bi rāh-i najāt. Makan bi fisq mubāḥāt u zuhd ham mafarūsh.
67 Rūmī, Kulliyāt-i Shams, ed. Furūzānfar, vol. 4, p. 36, ghazal 1685, v. 17660. Dar jurm-i tawba kardan, būdīm tā bi gardan / Az tawbahā-yi karda, īn bār tawba kardam.
68 Mathnawī, ed. Nicholson, VI: 897–902; VI: 969–70.
69 Rūmī, Kulliyāt-i Shams, ed. Furūzānfar, vol. 4, p. 66, ghazal 1735, v. 18199. Zihī gunāh ki kufr-ast tawba kardan az ū / Ni pas, ṭarīq-i gurīz va ni pīsh jā-yi maqām.
70 Kulliyāt-i Sa'dī, p. 546.
71 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 20: 2. Trans. Bly and Lewisohn
, Angels, p. 59.
72 See my ‘Of Scent and Sweetness’, pp. 49–51.
73 The original Persian reads khūn-i jigar, literally meaning ‘the liver’s blood’, but by extension signifies bitterly wept tears that are ‘bloody tears torn from the heart’, or ‘tears of blood drawn out of the gut’.
74 Manṭiq al-ṭayr, ed. Gawharīn, vv. 1269–70; 1277–80; translation by Davis and Darbandi, The Conference of the Birds, pp. 61–2.
75 See ‘Attar, The Conference of the Birds, translation by Davis and Darbandi, ‘The Story of Shaykh Sam‘an’, pp. 57–75.
76 [On which, see: Javad Nurbakhsh, Sufi Symbolism, I, see ‘Part 2: Sufi Symbolism of Wine, Music, Mystical Audition (Samā‘) and Convivial Gatherings’, pp. 125–214. Ed./trans.]
77 [For a thorough discussion of this theme in Ḥāfiẓ’s poetry, see Leili Anvar-Chenderoff’s essay in this volume. Ed./trans.]
78 [On the mystical theology of ‘true idolatry’, see Lewisohn, Beyond Faith and Infidelity, chap. 8. Ed./trans.]
79 Mā dar piyāla ‘aks-i rukh-i yār dīda-īm. Ay bīkhabar zi ladhat-i shurb-i mudām-i mā. In Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 11: 2.
80 Qur’ān VII: 172. [For further discussion of the role played by this key Qur’ānic motif in Ḥāfiẓ’s poems, see Leili Anvar’s essay in this volume. Ed./trans.]
81 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 273: 1 [Reading talkh for mast. Ed./trans.]
82 Kulliyāt-i Sa'dī, p. 509. [This is similar to Alexander Pope’s thesis at the conclusion of his Essay on Man (IV: 315–20) that ‘Virtue alone is Happiness here below’, describing Virtue as: ‘The joy unequal’d, if its end it gain, / And if it lose, attended with no pain: / Without satiety, tho’ ever so blest, / And but more relish’d as the most distressed. / The broadest mirth unfeeling Folly wears, / Less pleasing far than Virtue’s very tears’. Ed./trans.]
83 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 426: 9. Trans. Bly and Lewisohn, Angels, p. 48.
84 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 21: 1.
85 Ibid., ghazal 22: 5.
86 Ibid., ghazal 144: 5.
87 From his Sharaf-nāma, in Dastgirdī (ed.), Kulliyāt-i Ḥakīm Niẓāmī Ganjavī, pp. 602 (7: 1–2); 615 (11: 1–2).
88 Trans. Homerin, ‘Umar Ibn al-Fāriḍ: Sufi Verse, p. 50.
89 Mathnawī, ed. Nicholson, I: 133.
90 Ibid., III: 1433.
91 Kitāb-i Fihi mā fihi, ed. Furūzānfar, p. 105; trans. Arberry, The Discourses of Rumi, p. 116.
92 Dīvān-i Khwāja Ḥāfiẓ-i Shīrāzī, ed. Anjawī-Shīrāzī, p. 205. Man ki imrūzam bihisht-i naqd ḥāṣil mishavad, Va‘da-yi fardā-yi zāhid ra chirā bavar kunam?
93 Kulliyāt-i Sa'dī, p. 443. Bakht-i javān dārad ānki bā tu qarīn ast / Pīr nagardad ki dar bihisht-i barīn ast.
94 Mathnawī, ed. Nicholson, IV: 3262.
95 Qur’ān, XXI: 68–9; XXIX: 24. [See Khurramshāhī (ed.), Dānishnāma-yi Qur’ān, s.v. ‘Nimrūd’, II, pp. 2273–4. Ed./trans.]
96 [See Humā’ī, Funūn-i balāghat, pp. 328–31; Browne, Literary History of Persia, II, pp. 77–80. Ed./trans.]
97 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 27: 2.
98 Kulliyāt-i Sa'dī, p. 551.
99 Ibid., p. 568.
100 [See Moayyad, ‘Farhād’, EIr, IX, pp. 257–8. Ed./trans.]
101 Chigil is a city near the Kazakhstan border, not far from Kashgar in Xinjiang, renowned for its beautiful women.
102 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 461: 5.
103 [See Khaleghi-Motlagh, ‘Bīžān’, EIr, IV, pp. 309–10. Ed./trans.]
104 [See Yarshater, ‘’Afrāsīāb’, EIr, I, pp. 570–6. Ed./trans.]
105 Dīvān-i Ḥāfiẓ, ed. Khānlarī, ghazal 182: 4.
106 Ibid., ghazal 59: 6.
107 Ibid., ghazal 19: 7. [This is a reference to Qur’ān, XXVI: 119–20: ‘And we saved him [Noah] and those with him in the laden ship. Then afterwards drowned the others.’ Ed./trans.]
108 From his Khusraw va Shīrīn, in Dastgirdī (ed.), Kulliyāt-i Ḥakīm Niẓāmī Ganjavī, p. 81.
The Erotic Spirit: Love, Man and Satan in Ḥāfiẓ’s Poetry
Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab
Yikīst turkī-u tāzī dar īn mu‘āmala Ḥāfiẓ
Ḥadith-i ‘ishq bayān kun bi-dān zabān ki tu dānī 1
Ḥāfiẓ! Turkish and Arabic are the same in this business.
Describe the story of love in the language that you know.
Introduction
The characteristic strength of the poetry of Ḥāfiẓ (d. 791/1389) lies in his virtuoso use of a rich complex of themes and motifs in a single poem and even in a single couplet. The way he combines themes and motifs deriving from wine, love and nature poetry, from the ascetic, mystic and antinomian traditions, mesmerizes any Persian reader. Through this integration of themes, motifs and metaphors, Ḥāfiẓ allows a range of interpretations suiting the needs of each reader. He is the master of combining ‘different modes of discourse’ in a short poetic unit.2 Although the couplets are written as part of a longer composition, they take on a life of their own, as independent units, in the reception history.
One of Ḥāfiẓ’s primary themes is love. Although there is usually a profane and sometimes a purely romantic–erotic layer of interpretation in his poems on love, the theme of mystic love, which he knits to ascetic (zuhdiyyāt), bacchic (khamriyyāt) and antinomian (qalandariyyāt) themes, makes this poetry prismatic or polyfunctional. A reader unfamiliar with mystical lore will miss some of the dimensions of love being described, or find the work unclear. This chapter presents a close reading and commentary to show how a knowledge of this background can enrich our experience of reading Ḥāfiẓ’s poetry. It will indicate how a theory of love can be reconstructed from the Dīvān, and show how heavily Ḥāfiẓ relied on the creation myth as it had been developed by the Persian Sufi mystics over the preceding centuries.3
The Islamic and Persian Background
Love has been treated by various authors and poets in the Islamic world, who give definitions, describe love’s workings and impact, and discuss its purpose in human life. Most of the definitions one encounters in Persian poetry treat love as an ethico-mystical concept, an elusive but omnipresent force that ennobles man’s character and unites man with his Creator. The ‘love’ described by the Sufi mystics, as R.A. Nicholson observed, ‘is the emotional element in religion, the rapture of the seer, the courage of the martyr, the faith of the saint, the only basis of moral perfection and spiritual knowledge. Practically, it is self-renunciation and self-sacrifice, the giving up of all possessions – wealth, honour, will, life, and whatever else men value – for the Beloved’s sake without any thought of reward.’4
Ḥāfiẓ, an eclectic poet, uses a wide range of the ideas on love propounded by mystics, physicians and philosophers over the previous centuries. Ḥāfiẓ’s use of the term love corresponds entirely with his predecessors such as Sanā’ī (d. 525/1131), ‘Aṭṭār (d. 618/1221) and Niẓāmī (d. 606/1209), who were all influenced by Aḥmad Ghazālī’s (d. 520/1126) seminal treatise Sawāniḥ. While Sanā’ī produces a theory of love in his Ḥadīqa, and Niẓāmī shows the workings and impact of this force on human beings in his romances, Ḥāfiẓ, in his love lyrics, alludes primarily to the creation myth as it was used by the Persian Sufi mystics.
Islamic mystics recount their own version of the creation myth based on Love. In this story, God is portrayed as both Love and the Absolute Beloved, who has created the universe out of love. God’s motivation to create mankind was His ardent desire to be loved by God’s lover: mankind. Before man was created, the universe was in an absolute state of Oneness. Poets emphasize the solitude of absolute Oneness, saying that there was no name of existence in the world of Non-existence before God wished to reveal himself.5 Despite the simplicity of the Muslim mystical theogony, poets often describe this Absolute Oneness at length.6
; Mystics believe that the references to love in the Qur’ān indicate the special loving relationship between man and his creator, in which God functions as the Lover. Love occurs in several places of the Qur’ān. Words such as ḥubb and wudd, and derivations from these roots such as maḥabba and mawadda, are commonly used to refer to human and spiritual love. The Qur’ān refers to God by the appellation ‘loving’ (Wadūd, 11:90; 85:14). Addressing Moses in 20:39, God states: ‘I lavish My love on you.’ In verse 3:29, man is promised: ‘God will love you and forgive you your sins.’ In the verse 2:160, it is stated: ‘...the love of God is stronger in the faithful.’ A favourite verse, to which I will shortly return, is 5:59, which underscores the reciprocal love between man and God: ‘He loves them and they love Him.’
Although Ḥāfiẓ knew the Qur’ān by heart and often used the Qur’ānic vocabulary of love in his Dīvān, the term he usually uses for love is ‘ishq or ‘passionate love’, a non-Qur’ānic term depicting man’s relationship with the divine in erotic terms. Ḥāfiẓ apparently follows a tradition of love founded by the twelfth-century Persian mystics such as Aḥmad Ghazālī.
It is unclear which mystic first used the term ‘ishq systematically to refer to the passionate love relationship between man and God.7 Before the twelfth century, mystics commonly used maḥabbat, but from the twelfth century onwards this term was replaced by ‘ishq, or the two were used in parallel, as synonyms. Before the second half of the eleventh century, mystics generally avoided the term ‘ishq when referring to the love between man and God8 because of the term’s erotic import. Even in the twelfth century, during the time of Aḥmad Ghazālī, the term carried an erotic connotation, and mystics who used the term to explain the love relationship between man and God were criticized by theologians. To defend themselves, several twelfth-century Persian mystics pointed to traditions using the non-Qur’ānic term ‘ishq. In many treatises, even when the author talks about profane love, spiritual love is implicit and a metaphysical interpretation is usually possible. Earthly love is regarded as a preparation for spiritual love. For example, although at the beginning of the Sawāniḥ, the author promises the reader to speak about a love which does not belong to any direction, neither to the Creator nor to the creatures. However, he proves unable to keep his promise and, from the opening chapter, depicts spiritual love:9
Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry Page 21