Showing posts with label Hafiz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hafiz. Show all posts

Saturday, March 9, 2024

with that moon language







Admit something:

Everyone you see, you say to them, 
“Love me.”

Of course you do not do this out loud, 
Otherwise,
Someone would call the cops.

Still though, think about this, 
This great pull in us 
To connect.

Why not become the one 
Who lives with a full moon in each eye
 That is always saying,

With that sweet moon 
Language,

What every other eye in this world
 Is dying to
Hear?





~ Hafiz
from The Gift
Poems by Hafiz, 
the Great Sufi Master
translations by Daniel Ladinsky



Monday, March 20, 2023

a leaf says

 
 
 
 




A leaf says,

“Sweethearts—don’t pick me,
For I am busy doing
God’s work.

I am lowering my veins and roots
Like ropes
With buckets tied to them
Into the earth’s deep
Lake.

I am drawing water
That I offer like a rose to
The sky.

I am a singing cleaning woman
Dusting all the shelves in
The air
With my elegant green
Rags.

I have a heart.
I can know happiness like
You.



~ Hafiz
from The Subject Tonight is Love:
Sixty Wild and Sweet Poem of Hafiz
 
photo of Daisugi pruning technique
 
with thanks to love is a place
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

act great





What is the key
To untie the knot of your mind’s suffering?

What
Is the esoteric secret
To slay the crazed one whom each of us
Did wed

And who can ruin
Our heart’s and eye’s exquisite tender
Landscape?

Hafiz has found
Two emerald words that
Restored
Me

That I now cling to as I would sacred
Tresses of my Beloved’s 
Hair:

Act great.
My dear, always act great.

What is the key
To untie the knot of the mind’s suffering?

Benevolent thought, sound
And movement.



~ Hafiz

beautiful hands



.


.
This is the kind of Friend
You are -

Without making me realize
My soul's anguished history,
You slip into my house at night,
And while I am sleeping,
You silently carry off
All my suffering and sordid past 

In Your beautiful 
Hands.


.
~ Hafiz
from The Subject Tonight is Love
translation by Daniel Ladinsky



Tuesday, January 18, 2022

I do not want to step so quickly


.


.
I
Do not
Want to step so quickly
Over a beautiful line on God's palm
As I move through the earth's
Marketplace
Today.

I do not want to touch any object in this world
Without my eyes testifying to the truth
That everything is
My Beloved.

Something has happened
To my understanding of existence
That now makes my heart always full of wonder
And kindness.

I do not
Want to step so quickly
Over this sacred place on God's body
That is right beneath your
Own foot

As I
Dance with
Precious life
Today.

.
~ Hafiz
from The Gift
translation by Daniel Ladinsky
photo by albert watson

.

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

holding hands

 
 
 

 

Out of a great need
we are all holding hands
and climbing.

Not loving is a letting go.

Listen,the terrain around here
is
far too
dangerous
for
that.
 
 
 

~ Hafiz
 
 
 
 

Sunday, August 16, 2020

creating the house we live in








What we speak
becomes the house
we live in.
Who will want
to sleep in your bed
if the roof leaks
right above it?

Fear is the
cheapest room
in the house,
I would like
to see you living
in better conditions.

There is only one reason
we have followed God
into this world:
to encourage laughter,
freedom,
dance and love ....

God and I are rushing
from every corner of
existence,
needing to say
we are yours.

The sun never says
to the earth,
even after all this time
“you owe me”.

I once asked a bird
how is it that you
fly in this gravity
of darkness?
she responded,
love lifts me.

I should not make
any promises right now
but I know if you pray
somewhere in this world
something good
will happen.




~ Hafiz
Daniel Ladinsky and
Robert Bly versions

 with thanks to Love is a place


Thursday, July 30, 2020

traveling through







Death is a favour to us,
But our scales have lost their balance.
The impermanence of the body
Should give us great clarity, deepening the wonder in our
Senses and eyes
Of this mysterious existence we share
And surely are just traveling through.

If I were in the tavern tonight,
Hafiz would call for drinks
And as the Master poured, I would be reminded
That all I know of life and myself is that
We are just a mid-air flight of golden wine
Between His Pitcher and His cup.


If I were in the tavern tonight,
I would buy freely for everyone in this world
Because our marriage with the Cruel Beauty
Of time and space cannot endure very long.


Death is a favour to us,
But our minds have lost their balance.
The miraculous existence and impermanence of
Form
Always makes the illumined ones
Laugh and sing.





~ Hafiz
from  The subject tonight is Love –  poems of Hafiz
Versions by Daniel Ladinsky

Sunday, July 5, 2020

more kind?








Once a man came to me and spoke for hours about
“His great visions of God” he felt he was having.

He asked me for confirmation, saying,
Are these wondrous dreams true?”

I replied, “How many goats do you have?”
He looked surprised and said,
“I am speaking of sublime visions
And you ask
About goats!”

And I spoke again saying,
“Yes, brother – how many do you have?”

“Well, Hafiz, I have sixty-two.”

“And how many wives?”

Again he looked surprised, then said,
“Four.”

“How many rose bushes in your garden,
How many children,
Are your parents still alive,
Do you feed the birds in winter?”

And to all he answered.

Then I said,
“You asked me if I thought your visions were true,
I would say that they were if they make you become
More human,

More kind to every creature and plant
That you know.



~ Hafiz
from The Gift: Poems by the Great Sufi Master




 

Friday, June 12, 2020

the jar I am becoming








The sky-wheel turns us into dawn
and fills creation again with color.

Let it be our weakness, this thirst-love
for the world, the sun coming up
like red-gold being poured!

The potter's wheel moves,
and shapes change quickly.

Let the jar I am becoming
turn into a wine cup.
Fill me with your love
for being awake.

I'm no hypocrite renunciate.
Call me this delicious substance
you taste when you create new beauty.

Be strong, Hafiz!
Work here inside time,
where we fail, catch hold
again, and climb.





~ Hafiz
from The Hand of Poetry
translation by Inayat Khan and Coleman Barks





Monday, June 8, 2020

luminous, brimming, playful







Poetry reveals that there is no empty space.

When your truth forsakes its shyness,
When your fears surrender to your strengths,
You will begin to experience
That all existence
Is a teeming sea of infinite life.

In a handful of ocean water
You could not count all the finely tuned
Musicians
Who are acting stoned
For very intelligent and sane reasons
And of course are becoming extremely sweet
And wild!

In a handful of the sky and earth,
In a handful of God,
We cannot count
All the ecstatic lovers who are dancing there
Behind the mysterious veil.

True art reveals there is no void
Or darkness.
There is no loneliness to the clear-eyed mystic
In this luminous, brimming
Playful world. 
 



~  Hafiz
photo by  M. I. Walker
 with thanks to love is a place
 
 
 the more one looks with eyes of gratitude and appreciation,
the keener your sight will be, the more will be revealed to you, 
the gates of the garden will open here and now.



 

Friday, May 1, 2020

the grace








The time of judging
Who is drunk or sober,
Who is right and who is wrong,
Who is closer to god, and who is farther away,
All that is over.

This caravan is led instead by a great delight,
The simple joy that sits with us now.

That is the grace.


~ Hafiz





Wednesday, February 26, 2020

I follow barefoot


.



I long for You so much
I follow barefoot Your frozen tracks

That are high in the mountains
That I know are years old.

I long for You so much 
I have even begun to travel
Where I have never been before.

Hafiz, there is no one in this world
Who is not looking for God.

Everyone is trudging along
With as much dignity, courage
And style

As they possibly 
Can.



~ Hafiz
from The Subject Tonight is Love
translations by Daniel Ladinsky



Thursday, January 2, 2020

how did the rose






How
did the rose
ever open its heart
and give to this world all if its beauty?

It felt the encouragement of light against its being,
otherwise we all remain too
frightened.





~ Hafiz



Tuesday, October 29, 2019

to see this








I have come into this world to see this:
 the sword drop from men's hands
 even at the height of their arc of anger
 because we have finally realized there is just one flesh
 to wound and it is the Beloved's.

I have come into this world to see this: 
all creatures hold hands as we pass through
 this miraculous existence we share on the way
 to an even greater being of soul, 
a being of just ecstatic light, 
forever entwined and at play with Him.

I have come into this world to hear this:
 every song the earth has sung since it was conceived
 in the Divine's womb and began spinning from His wish,
 every song by wing and fin and hoof,
 every song by hill and field and tree
 and woman and child, every song
 of stream and rock, every song of tool and lyre and flute,
 every song of gold and emerald and fire,
 every song the heart should cry with magnificent dignity
 to know itself as God: for all other knowledge 
will leave us again in want and aching -
 only imbibing the glorious Sun will complete us. 

I have come into this world to experience this:
 men so true to love they would rather die
 before speaking an unkind word,
 men so true their lives are His covenant - the promise of hope.

I have come into this world to see this: 
the sword drop from men's hands 
even at the height of their arc of rage 
because we have finally realized there is just one flesh
 we can wound.




~ Hafiz
from Love Poems from God: 
Twelve Sacred voices from East and West
edited by Daniel Ladinsky


Sunday, October 27, 2019

tripping over joy






What is the difference
Between your experience of Existence
And that of a saint?

The saint knows
That the spiritual path
Is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved
Has just made such a Fantastic Move

That the saint is now continually
Tripping over Joy
And bursting out in Laughter
And saying, “I Surrender!”

Whereas, my dear,
I am afraid you still think
You have a thousand serious moves.






  ~ Hafez
from I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy
by Daniel Ladinsky


Sunday, April 21, 2019

stretch out








Leave the familiar for a while.
Let your senses and bodies stretch out
Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.
Open up to the Roof.

Make a new water-mark on your excitement
And love.
Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.
All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.

Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting
While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You. 




~ Hafiz


Thursday, February 7, 2019

building cages or dropping keys





No photo description available.


The small man
Builds cages for everyone
He Knows.

While the sage,
Who has to duck his head
When the moon is low,

Keeps dropping
keys all night long
For the
Beautiful
Rowdy
Prisoners




~ Hafiz


Thursday, January 24, 2019

"love me."





Admit something:

Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me."

Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise
someone would call the cops.

Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.

Why not become the one who lives with a
full moon in each eye that is 
always saying,

With that sweet moon language,
what every other eye in 
this world is
dying to 
hear?



~  Hafiz


Saturday, March 18, 2017

birds of passage







The
Classroom
Surely becomes disarrayed
When the teacher is out of sight
Because of our grand
Volcanic 
Spirits.

The 
Birds of passage
Arrive with a broken 
Wing,

Though
Are then lifted by God
So high and
"Low"

To experience the heart
Of everything.

The mind surely becomes disarrayed
When the Teacher is out
Of sight.



~ Hafiz
from The Gift
translations by Daniel Ladinisky