Tag: Hafez

Hafiz poem interpretation – What Happens
Hafez · love · Poem · Poetry · Spiritual

Hafiz poem interpretation – What Happens

radhikab

Here is my interpretation of Hafiz’s poem ‘What Happens’

What happens when your soul
Begins to awaken
Your eyes
And your heart
And the cells of your body
To the great Journey of Love?

First there is wonderful laughter
And probably precious tears

And a hundred sweet promises
And those heroic vows
No one can ever keep.

But still God is delighted and amused
You once tried to be a saint.

What happens when your soul
Begins to awake in this world

To our deep need to love
And serve the Friend?

O the Beloved
Will send you 
One of His wonderful, wild companions –

Like Hafiz.

In this poem Hafiz first describes someone who is falling in love – in the worldly ‘love’ sense – with another human being, with expectations of love being returned. This ‘great journey’ of love is what slowly makes this human being feel alive. In this love, we make a lot of heroic promises which we obviously break over time as this love/relationship becomes a mundane thing in our life. He says, God is truly amused at this childlike behavior of humans but God still appreciates that humans try to be noble, brave and saintly in the name of love.

Then he says, similarly a person might have another type of soul awakening to love – but this time, it could be to a divine type of love – one that is free of attachments and expectations. It is the deep need to love anyone whom you see hurting or suffering, the need to serve those who need help. What happens to a person like this? Hafiz answers this by saying that God will send you one of his messengers to help you out, to show you the way, to guide you. A messenger, just like Hafiz 🙂

Taken from  ‘I Heard God Laughing : Renderings of Hafiz’ by Daniel Ladinsky.

Image credit : me

 

Hafez poem interpretation – The Warrior
feel good · Hafez · love · Poem · Poetry · Spiritual

Hafez poem interpretation – The Warrior

radhikab

Here is my interpretation of Hafez’s poem ‘The warrior’

The warriors tame

The beast in their past
So that the night’s hoofs
Can no longer break the jeweled vision
In the heart.

Hafez says that the warriors are the ones who introspect and heal all of the pains of their past. They do this healing so that they are no longer in the vibration of hurt. Once they have done this healing – no other pain from the world can break the beautiful love which lives in their heart. They know that all the important battles are fought inside oneself.

The intelligent and the brave
Open every closet in the future and evict
All the mind’s ghosts who have the bad habit
Of barfing everywhere.

He says the truly smart people are the ones who go into all their thoughts of the future and remove the expectations which live here. He calls these expectations as ghosts and say they basically ruin everything. The smart ones do not expect much from the future.

For a long time the Universe
Has been germinating in your spine

But only a Saint has the talent,
The courage to slay
The past-giant, the future-anxieties.

Hafez says that this strength has been building in the warrior’s spine – growing steadily. Spine because it is from the spine that the energy moves up the body. He says that only a Saint though has the guts to heal all of the past hurts and issues and calm all the future anxiety. He emphasizes that a true warrior is also a saint. He is like a Samurai who has his sword tucked away in it’s sheath – but he always has a hand on it and can wield it effortlessly when required.

The warrior
Wisely sits in a circle
With other men
Gathering the strength to unmask
Himself,

A warrior is one who knows himself truly, who can completely unmask his own ego – not just in solitude but also in front of a group of men. It is someone who can be himself completely in front of any audience or when alone.

Then
Sits, giving,
like a great illumined planet on
The
Earth.

This warrior-saint then becomes like a light giving planet who spreads the light wherever he goes and keeps enlightening this world. He becomes a channel for the Divine’s service with the only purpose of giving. This is similar to what Krishna advices Arjuna in the battlefield – do your duty but do not be attached to the results. Become a channel for God’s divine energy to flow through you – whether it be in the battlefield or elsewhere. Follow your dharma.

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Image credit : https://pixshark.com/spartan-warriors-in-battle.htm

Hafez poem interpretation – The Woman I love
feel good · love · Poem · Poetry · Rumi · Spiritual

Hafez poem interpretation – The Woman I love

radhikab

Here is my interpretation of Hafez’s poem ‘The woman I love’

Because the Woman I love lives inside of you,

I lean as close to your body with my words as I can
and I think of you all the time,
dear pilgrim.

Hafez is talking to the woman he is in love with – he refers to her as the woman inside her – because he is actually in love with the soul (not merely the body) of this woman. So he says, instead of leaning his body closer to his lover’s – he prefers to lean closer to her with his words and thoughts. He cannot stop thinking of her.

Because the One I love goes with you wherever you go,
Hafiz will always be near.

He says, because he thinks of the one inside her all the time (this means God – as God dwells inside all of us) – he is going to be near her always, even though physically he is distant. He is alluding to the fact that we are all connected via energy and via God as we all are nothing but unit consciousness.

If you sat before me, wayfarer, with your aura bright from
your many charms,

my lips could resist rushing to you, but my eyes, my eyes
can no longer hide the wondrous fact of who
you really are.

He says that if he were physically beside the woman he loves, he would see her aura shining around her bright. This bright aura is an indication of the many good quality that this woman cultivates within her being – here is where he gets a glimpse of God within her. He says, he could control himself from the urge to kiss her – but his eyes are going to give him away. They are going to give away the secret that he is in awe of her and that he can clearly see the divinity that lives inside her and is very much in love with it. He calls her pilgrim and traveller to show the fact that ultimately, she is on her way to be one with God.

The Beautiful One whom I adore
has pitched Her royal tent inside of you,

so I will always lean my heart
as close to your soul
as I can.

He says, God has made a permanent home inside her. And so he will try to be with her soul always, through his heart – love, prayer and thoughts. He is talking here about a divine kind of love, where the lover does not physically need the beloved in his life. It is a love that surpasses physical limitation. It is a love that extends into the 5D of love, thoughts and prayers – where he can love her through any distance and where one day, they both will be one with God and merge with each other in him.

Taken from The Subject Tonight is Love by Daniel Ladinsky

Image credit : Bernd Vogel / Corbis