Poems from the CD Hafiz: The Scent of Light, translated by Daniel Ladinsky
http://www.amazon.com/Hafiz-The-Scent-Light/dp/1564559580
1. Your Beautiful Parched, Holy Mouth
A poet is someone
Who can pour Light into a spoon,
Then raise it
To nourish
Your beautiful parched, holy mouth.
5. A Hole in a Flute
I am a hole in a flute
that the Christ's breath moves through
listen to this music
I am the concert from the mouth of every creature
singing with the myriad chorus
2. The Scent of Light
Like a great starving beast
My body is quivering,
Fixed on the scent of light.
I am a hole in a flute
that the Christ's breath moves through
listen to this music
3. You Left a Thousand Women Crazy
Beloved,
Last time,
When You walked through the city
so Beautiful and Naked,
You left a thousand women crazy
and impossible to live with.
You left a thousand married men
confused about their gender.
Children ran from their classrooms
and teachers were glad You came.
And the sun tried to break out
of its royal cage in the sky
And at last, and at last
Lay its Ancient Love at Your feet.
And I wish You would have let it,
So the whole world could have died
like Hafiz,
Dancing so happily,
Filled with Ecstasy and
Unbearable Divine Light.
4. Spill the Oil Lamp!
Spill the oil lamp!
Set this dry, boring place on fire!
If you have ever
Made wonton love with God,
Then you have ignited that brilliant Light inside
That every person needs.
So –Spill the oil!
6. The Lute Will Beg
You need to become a pen
In the Sun´s hand.
We need for the earth to sing
Through our pores and eyes.
The body will again become restless
Until your soul paints all its beauty
Upon the sky.
Don´t tell me, dear ones,
That what Hafiz says is not true,
For when the heart tastes its glorious destiny
And you awake to our constant need
for your love
God´s lute will beg
For your hands.
7. Keeping Watch
In the morning
when I began to wake,
it happened again–
that feeling
that you, Beloved,
had stood over me all night
keeping watch,
that feeling
that as soon as I began to stir
you put your lips on my forehead
and lit the Holy Lamp
inside my heart.
8. 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.
9. Saints Bowing in the Mountains
Do you know how beautiful you are?
I think not, my dear.
For as you talk of God,
I see great parades with wildly colorful bands
Streaming from your mind and heart,
Carrying wonderful and secret messages
To every corner of this world.
I see saints bowing in the mountains
Hundreds of miles away
To the wonder of sounds
That break into light
From your most common words.
Speak to me of your mother,
Your cousins and your friends.
Tell me of squirrels and birds you know.
Awaken your legion of nightingales—
Let them soar wild and free in the sky.
And begin to sing to God.
Let’s all begin to sing to God!
Do you know how beautiful you are?
I think not, my dear,
Yet Hafiz
Could set you upon a Stage
And worship you forever!
10. I Am Really Just a Tambourine
Good poetry makes the universe
admit a secret:
I am really just a tambourine,
grab hold, play me against you.
11. Dance Dervish Dance
Dance, dervish dance—
bring the face of god before you.
only love can lift the heart up so high that its true color is
restored by the sun!
see him near and clapping, that perfect one who fathers
divine rhythm.
o dance, dervish dance,
and know you bring your master happiness whenever you
smile.
last night so many tears took flight because of joy that the
sky god crowded and complained
when i discovered god hiding again in my heart
and i could not cease to celebrate.
12. I Saw You Dancing
I saw you dancing last night on the roof
Of your house all alone.
I felt your heart longing for the friend.
I saw you whirling
Beneath the soft bright rose
That hung from an invisible stem in the sky,
So I began to change into my best clothes
In hopes of joining you
Even though
I live a thousand miles away.
And if
You had spun like an immaculate sphere
Just two more times,
Then bowed again so sweetly to
The East,
You would have found God and me
Standing so near
And lifting you into our
Arms.
I saw you dancing last night near the roof
Of this world.
Hafiz feels your soul in mine
Calling for our
Beloved.
13. Even After All This Time
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.
14. 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.
15. Forever Dance
I am happy even before I have a reason.
I am full of Light even before the sky
Can greet the sun or the moon.
Dear companions,
We have been in love with God
For so very, very long.
What can Hafiz now do but Forever
Dance!
16. Your Shape of Laughter
Let my words become like a skilled
Potter’s hands, quieting,
Smoothing your life
With their knowledge,
Reaching into your tender core
And spreading you out
Like the morning
That leaps from the sun’s amused wink
Onto hills, brows and the backs of so many
Beautiful laboring beasts.
God’s duty is to make perfect
All your movements of mind, of limb,
And your ascending shape of laughter.
Watch the way my hands dance
With their diamond-edged brilliance
Cutting you open with music,
Reaching into your heart
And spilling the night sky-jar you carry
That is always full of giggling planets and stars.
My words are a divine potter’s wheel.
If you stay near to me, please,
Stay near to me–
And Hafiz will spin you into love.
17. This Constant Yearning
We are like lutes once held by God.
Being away from his warm body
Fully explains this constant yearning.
18. An Old Musician
How should those who know of God
Meet and part?
The way an old musician
Greets his beloved instrument
And will take special care,
As a great artist always does,
To enhance the final note
of each performance.
19. Old Sweet Beggar
This path to God
Made me such an old sweet beggar.
I was starving until one night
My love tricked God Himself
To fall into my bowl.
Now Hafiz is infinitely rich,
But all I ever want to do
Is keep emptying out
My emerald filled pockets
Upon this tear stained world.
20. Why Aren't We Screaming Drunks?
The sun once glimpsed God's true nature
And has never been the same.
Thus that radiant sphere
Constantly pours its energy
Upon this earth
As does He from behind
The veil.
With a wonderful God like that
Why isn't everyone a screaming drunk?
Hafiz's guess is this:
Any thought that you are better or less
Than another man
Quickly breaks the wine glass.
21. Someone Should Start Laughing
I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:
How are you?
I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:
What is God?
If you think that the Truth can be known
From words,
If you think that the Sun and the Ocean
Can pass through that tiny opening Called the mouth,
O someone should start laughing!
Someone should start wildly Laughing –Now!
22. A Barroom View of Love
I would not want all my words
To parade around this world
In pretty costumes,
So I will tell you something
Of the Barroom view of Love.
Love is grabbing hold of the Great Lion’s mane
And wrestling and rolling deep into Existence
While the Beloved gets rough
And begins to maul you alive.
True Love, my dear,
Is putting an ironclad grip upon
The soft, swollen balls
Of a Divine Rogue Elephant
And not having the good fortune to Die!
23. It Happens All The Time in Heaven
It happens all the time in heaven,
And some day
It will begin to happen
Again on earth That men and women who are married,
And men and men who are
Lovers,
And women and women
Who give each other
Light,
Often will get down on their knees
And while so tenderly
Holding their lover's hand,
With tears in their eyes,
Will sincerely speak, saying,
'My dear,
How can I be more loving to you;
How can I be more
Kind?'
24. My Sweet, Crushed Angel
You have not danced so badly, my dear,
Trying to hold hands with the Beautiful One.
You have waltzed with great style,
My sweet, crushed angel,
To have ever neared God’s heart at all.
Our Partner is notoriously difficult to follow,
And even His best musicians are not always easy
To hear.
So what if the music has stopped for a while.
So what
If the price of admission to the Divine
Is out of reach tonight.
So what, my dear,
If you do not have the ante to gamble for Real Love.
The mind and the body are famous
For holding the heart ransom,
But Hafiz knows the Beloved’s eternal habits.
Have patience,
For He will not be able to resist your longing
For Long.
You have not danced so badly, my dear,
Trying to kiss the Beautiful One.
You have actually waltzed with tremendous style,
O my sweet,
O my sweet crushed angel.
25. Where Dolphins Dance
Again
The work starts
As soon as you open your eyes in the
Morning
Hopefully you got
Some good rest last night.
Why go into the city or the fields
Without first kissing
The Friend
Who always stands at your door?
It takes only a second.
Habits are human nature –
Why not create some that will mind
Gold?
Your arms are violin bows
Always moving.
I have become very conscious upon
Whom we all play.
Thus my eyes have filled with warm
Soft oceans of divine music
Where jeweled dolphins dance
Then leap into this
World.
26. 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.
27. You Better Start Kissing Me
Throw away
Your begging bowls at God's door
For I have heard the Beloved
Prefers sweet threatening shouts,
Something on the order of:
Hey, Beloved,
My heart is a raging volcano
of love for you!
You better start kissing me Or else!"
28. Manic Screaming
We should make all spiritual talk
simple today:
God is trying to sell you something,
But you don’t want to buy.
That is what your suffering is:
Your fantastic haggling,
Your manic screaming over the price!
29. The Body a Tree
The body a tree, God a wind.
When He moves me like this, like this,
angels bump heads with each other
gathering beneath my cheeks,
holding their wine barrels, catching
the brilliant tear, pearl rain.
Love, a tree. When it moves us like this,
How can our souls’ limbs not touch?
30. My Eyes So Soft
Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly
let it cut more deep.
Let it ferment and season you
as few human or even divine ingredients can
Something missing in my heart tonight
has made my eyes so soft
my voice so tender
my need of God
absolutely clear.
31. How Does It Feel to Be a Heart?
Once a young woman said to me,
“How does it feel to be a man?”
And I replied, “My dear, I am not so sure.”
Then she said, “Well, aren’t you a man?”
And this time I responded, “I view gender
as a beautiful animal that people often take
for a walk on a leash
and might enter into some odd contest
in hopes of winning a strange prize.”
My dear, a better question for Hafiz
would have been, “How does it feel to be a heart?”
For all I know is Love.
I find my heart infinite,
and everywhere.
32. The Tender Mouth
What will
The burial of my body be?
The pouring of a sacred cup of wineInto the tender
mouth of the earth
And making
My dear sweet lover laugh
One more time.
33. My Brilliant Image
One day the sun admitted,
I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you
The Infinite Incandescence
That has cast my brilliant image!
I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,
The astonishing Light
Of your own Being!
34. The God Who Only Knows Four Words
Every child has known God,
Not the God of names,
Not the God of don'ts,
Not the God who ever does anything weird,
But the God who knows only four words.
And keeps repeating them, saying
"Come dance with
Me, come dance."