Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty Ghazals from the Diwan of Hafiz (Library of Persian: Text and Contexts in Persian Religions and Spirituality) by Hafiz, Elizabeth T. Gray, Elizabeth T., Jr Gran, Shams Al-Din Muhammad Hafiz-I Shirazi ISBN: 1-883991-06-4 Publisher: White Cloud Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.67 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Go Gray
Comment: Elizabeth T. Gray is one of the very few translators who can come close to doing justice to Hafiz. Forget Ladinsky; if you want to get an idea what Hafiz really said, get Gray. To correct a misconception, the convention in Sufi poetry is to invoke Allah as a woman, lover of the male human Sufi. That's why so many Sufi poems are about love for women named Layla or Salma. The Sufi vision of God tends to be female. This is more explicit in Arabic Sufi poetry, because Arabic uses gender unlike Persian. Muhyi al-Din ibn al-'Arabi said in Arabic we can call Allah either huwa 'He' or hiya 'She', the latter because the ultimate Divine Essence (al-Dhat) is Feminine. The genderless Persian pronoun leaves an interesting ambiguity that you can't duplicate in English, but by calling God "She," Elizabeth T. Gray is well within the authenticity of the Sufi poetic tradition. I have heard her speak about how she discovered these poems, and read Hafiz aloud; she told of her deep spiritual connection with these poems and the divine love they inspired in her, and of her visit to Hafiz's tomb in Shiraz. The poet himself must be smiling from Heaven upon seeing her presenting his poems to us moderns with such love and care.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent in every way, a great introduction to Hafiz
Comment: This is the book I was trying to find when I ordered "The Gift," which is an absurd series of forgeries.
This book, clearly a labor of love by Elizabeth Gray, presents the Persian and the English on facing pages. Gray does tend to translate "the Beloved" with a female pronoun, BUT in her very useful introduction she points out that this is probably wrong, since the typical "Beloved" in Hafiz is male.
There's much much more. There is a very useful discussion of the history and form of the ghazal, the meter is annotated, the individual words and similes are extensively discussed, and we are able to understand how Hafiz is the most spiritual of poets through the separate introduction by Daryush Shayegan.
Until I saw this book, Persian poetry in general and Hafiz in particular were totally opaque to me, although I have some knowledge of Farsi and used to speak it fairly well. Now that I have seen this book, the veil is lifted, and I can begin to see.
Thank you Elizabeth Gray and White Cloud Press for this labor of love!
Rating: 2
Summary: Academic But Not Uplifting
Comment: Yet another stiff, unimaginative version of the great poet Hafiz. This is a poet of the heart and spirit, not someone who can be pinned down in word-for-word translation. Still, this is an honest academic effort; just not rewarding or uplifting for the spirit.
 |
Title: The Spiritual Wisdom of Hafez: Teachings of the Philosopher of Love by Haleh Pourafzal, Roger Montgomery ISBN: 0892816678 Publisher: Inner Traditions Intl Ltd Pub. Date: August, 1998 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
 |
Title: I Heard God Laughing: Renderings of Hafiz by Hafiz, Daniel Ladinsky, Henry S. Mindlin, H. Wilberforce Clarke ISBN: 0915828189 Publisher: Sufism Reoriented Pub. Date: August, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved : Poems of Hafiz by Hafiz, Thomas Rain Crowe ISBN: 157062853X Publisher: Shambhala Pub. Date: 14 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
Title: The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master by Hafiz, Daniel Ladinsky ISBN: 0140195815 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: The Subject Tonight Is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz by Hafiz, Daniel Ladinsky ISBN: 0140196234 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 28 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
