Hafiz cover art

Hafiz

The Voice of God: A Hundred Odes

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £6.99

Buy Now for £6.99

About this listen

In what might be one of the most definitive English translations of Persian mystic and poet Hafiz, the English and Urdu translator Khalid Hameed Shaida blends an empathetic pen with what must be a deeply intuitive soul. Tender and sincere, Hafiz: The Voice of God, A Hundred Odes is a powerful collection of Hafiz's first 100 lyrical poems, or ghazals, that bring to fruition love, mysticism, and other early Sufi themes. With a keen sense of timing and verse, the translator is able to capture the lyrical, at times playful, quality as well as Hafiz's profound messages that possess elements of modern surrealism.

This compilation stresses form and verse as it weaves a nearly magical intensity that will have new readers falling in love with an ancient master of poetry and aficionados of the Persian mystic period appreciating timeless odes in a creative and inspired voice.

©2008 Khalid Hameed Shaida (P)2012 Khalid Hameed Shaida Middle Eastern Poetry Themes & Styles World Literature Classics Middle East
All stars
Most relevant
Many have tried. An impossible task. The hardest to read or listen to may be the most competent and “worthy”, simply because all Hafiz’ poems address The Beloved in a similar way. The ecstasies of joy, couched within the metaphors of drinking and love, can become “samey”. This does the poems a great injustice because they need to be sung, or sonorously intoned: an example of poetry which DEMANDS performance. The worst translations are probably the old ones, couched in archaic, “poetical” English. These are, frankly,, alienating.

So where do you go? This translation is done in rhyming couplets, and exhibits the worst traits of this style by dragging in bad rhymes rather too often in the most execrable doggerel. And yet this apparent naivety works, very often. Why? Because it is interesting to the ear and never flat nor monotonous. In fact it has a mesmeric quality which can put you “under the influence”, quite in accord with Hafiz’ bar rooms and taverns. It is ordinary, down-to-earth, a quality exhibited by all the greatest visionaries and mystics: reality is here and now. Hafiz brings the ineffable into the most worldly locations, thus blending the two in the one truth.

In the end, after initial impatience, I let myself be carried along by the flow of this translation, turning off my rational, critical mind. Maybe that’s the point: just experience, don’t think.

The reading itself is adequate: the reader has a good voice, but “swallows” the ends of some lines which are inaudible - not good professional technique.

I suggest: listen to this reading, followed by a more conventional one: then decide!

How Do you translate Hafiz?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.