Biography
Hafiz of Shiraz is the supreme master of the Persian ghazal, a poet whose collected Divan has been consulted as an oracle across the Persianate world for six centuries. Born in Shiraz around 1325, he spent nearly his entire life in that city, writing approximately five hundred ghazals that transformed the form by fusing its outward celebrations of wine and beauty with a Sufi interior of spiritual longing. His name itself is a devotional credential: Hafiz designates one who has memorized the Quran, and his poetry carries the Quran's cadences even when it appears to contradict its prohibitions. His influence on Afghan cultural and literary life is perhaps greater than that of any other classical poet; in Afghanistan, his Divan is treated as a book of divination, opened at random to read one's fortune.
Ahmad Zahir and Hafiz
Ahmad Zahir drew directly on several of Hafiz's most theologically charged ghazals, including "Tu Dani Tu Ze Chi Jawhar" and "Haasha Ke Man Ba Mowsum," rendering their wine-and-devotion arguments in his characteristic warm baritone and making Sufi theology accessible to a popular audience without stripping it of its weight.
Songs from Hafiz’s Tradition
به خود گفتم پس از چندی
Ba Khud Guftam Pas Az Chande
I Told Myself After a While
A Hafiz poem of private reckoning — the speaker in interior dialogue, coming to terms with what love has done to them, after a passage of time has brought clarity.
برود ای حریفان
Berawed Ay Harifan
Go Away, O Companions
Hafiz sends companions to bring the beloved, accepting her promises of 'another time' as beautiful deceit. The messenger poem — having others conduct what you cannot — is a classic ghazal structure.
دوش از مسجد
Dosh Az Masjid
Last Night from the Mosque
Hafiz's famous poem: last night the elder — the spiritual guide — left the mosque and went to the tavern. What now do we disciples do? A radical critique of institutional religion's authority.
ای پادشاه خوبان
Ay Padshahe Khooban
O King of the Beautiful
O king of beauties — help me from the grief of loneliness; the garden's rose does not stay fresh forever; there is no self-regard in the world of the rend.
Tu Dani Tu Ze Chi Jawhar
You Know, You of What Substance
A Hafiz ghazal turned into song — the poet addressing God directly, asking what divine substance the wounded heart was made of, that even in death it clothes itself in tulips.
دست از طلب ندارم
Dast Az Talab Nadaram
I Will Not Stop Seeking
One of Hafiz's most determined ghazals: I will not stop seeking until I achieve my desire or die. After death, open my grave — smoke rises from the fire still burning inside.
Haasha Ke Man Ba Mowsum
God Forbid That I to the Season
Hafiz's famous defense of the wine-drinker against the pious — Ahmad Zahir delivers it as a declaration of personal freedom, wine as emblem of authentic life over religious performance.