Shams al-Din Hafiz Shirazi Comments

Some interesting Rubaiyats and ghazals, a poet with spiritual touch.

hafiz, also rendered hafez, is my current favorite poet. i've become familiar with him mainly through the renderings of daniel ladinsky. i recommend his collection the gift which i've visited over and over. closer to translations are the ghazals in robert bly's collection the winged energy of delight which is a great anthology. though ladinsky has gotten some criticism for not closely enough representing hafiz in form, i've tried four other translations and don't think i would have discovered hafiz had i only known them. ladinsky has done us a great service by mining hafiz for the gems.

I love the poetry of Hafiz. I enjoyed the poems found here but my favorite translator of Hafiz is Daniel Landinsky. I find he gets to the heart of the playfulness and joy of Hafiz. I recommend reading his books of Hafiz, 'The Gift' and '60 Wild, Sweet Poems of Hafiz'. Does anyone know if there are any direct translations of his work available? For example, the ones that do not rhyme? Also, are there any recordings of his peotry read in the Persian language? (Farsi? Arabic?)