In search of Hafez Shirazi

By C. Raja Mohan

SHIRAZ, APRIL 13. It has been a sentimental journey for the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, who arrived here this morning after a ceremonial farewell last evening at Teheran. For Mr. Vajpayee who writes poetry in spare time, Shiraz is of particular interest. Having quoted liberally from Hafez to the Majlis in Teheran, Mr. Vajpayee is here to visit the Hafezieh, the tomb of the great Farsi poet.

Mr. Vajpayee will surely recall the words of Rabindranath Tagore who came here in 1932 to the Hafezieh and wrote, ``I have sat beside the resting place of Hafez and intimately felt his touch in the glimmering green of your woodlands, in blossoming roses. The past age of Persia lent the old world perfume of his own sunny hours of spring to the morning of that day and the silent voice of your ancient poet filled the silence in the heart of the poet of modern India.''

Few people love poetry as much as Iranians do. If there is one thing they might be willing to put above religion, it is poetry. If there is a nation that worships poets, it is Iran. And no one is better regarded here than Hafez. Many Iranians believe the poetry of Hafez has answers to all their daily problems, and love to quote from him liberally. The veneration of Hafez here reflects lasting influence of Sufism on the Iranian soul.

Shiraz is not just one of the great ancient cities of Iran, it is also widely known as ``poetic capital'' of Persia. Shiraz has given the world of Farsi poetry two great giants - Sa'di in the 13th century and Hafez in the 14th.

These two poets from the same city created two different worlds. Sa'di wandered across the region from Turkey to India as a dervish, while Hafez barely travelled out of Shiraz. While Hafez made the world out of the single city, Sa'di made a single city out of the world.

Hafez's popularity spread to India in his own lifetime; and Bahamani rulers of Hyderabad had invited him to visit the city. Hafez reached the port of Bandar Abbas, but turned back to Shiraz, because the seas were stormy.

Hafez, which means ``one who remembers the Koran'', was the pen name of Shamsuddin Mohammad. He was well-versed in Islamic theology, and wrote commentaries on religious classics. But his wine-drinking and exuberant lifestyle scandalized the clergy of his times. The clergy even tried to prevent him from getting a burial according to Muslim rites.

Hafez popularised the Ghazal form. Traditionally, the Ghazal dealt with the ideas of love and wine, themes, which also lent themselves to the effective expression of Sufi mysticism. Here is one from Hafez:

The double charms of love and wine

Alike from one sweet source arise;

Are we to blame, shall we repine,

When unconstrain'd the passions rise?

Hafez's popularity is said to rest on his use of colloquial language, simple imagery, and proverbs reflecting folk wisdom. His abiding love of humanity and contempt for hypocrisy allowed him to universalise daily experience, and relate it to the mystical search for union with God.

Sufism is one of Persia's spiritual roots which has inspired much of the beauty of the literature, architecture through the ages. One of the historians of Persia, John Standish, writes, ``Sufism as expressed by Persia's poets is comprehensive and all-embracing in its tenets; there is no narrow exclusiveness and no assumption that the truth is reserved only for the elect.''

Here is Hafez again:

Love is where the glory falls

Of thy face - on convent walls

Or on tavern floors, the same

Undistinguishable flame.

Where the turbaned anchorite

Chanteth Allah day and night,

Church bells ring the call to prayer

And the Cross of Christ is there.

Hafez was born in Shiraz in the wake of the Mongol conquest of Persia and lived under the rule of awe-inspiring Timur. Much like Birbal and Tenali Ramakrishna, legends about the wit of Hafez abound here.

An angry Timur is believed to have summoned Hafez one day and demanded to know: ``Art thou so bold as to offer my two great cities, Samarkhand and Bukhara, for the black moles on they mistress's cheek?''

Hafez said to have replied: ``Yes sire, and it is by such acts of generosity that I have brought myself to such a state of destruction that I have now to solicit your bounty.'' Timur apparently cooled down and dismissed Hafez with a gift.

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