Hafis (d. h. Bewahrer: der Ehrenname für diejenigen, die den Koran auswendig beherrschen), lebte von 1326 bis 1390 in Schiras. Er gilt als der größte Dichter Persiens. In seinen Liedern und Gedichten verherrlichte er nicht nur Allah und den Koran, er besang in den feurigsten Tönen die Schönheit der Natur, die Liebe zu Frauen und Knaben, zu Wein, Schenken, Gesang und Tanz. Goethe nennt ihn den "heiligen Hafis". Ein Heiliger, der das Leben in seiner ganzen Fülle und Sinnlichkeit liebte und genauso sinnlich in seinen Gedichten pries.

The Subject Tonight Is LoveIntroduction
Where Dolphins Dance
The Woman I Love
Forgiveness Is the Cash
All the Hemispheres
The Vegetables
At This Party
Why All This Talk?
In a Handful of God
Because of Our Wisdom
We Keep Each Other Happy
Castrating an Ego
This Place Where You Are Right Now
In a Tree House
We Are a Couple of Barroom Sailors
No Other Kind of Light
Not with Wings
Venus Just Asked Me
The Size of the Love Bruise
The Theater of Freedom
You Say, I Say
Where Do You Think You Will Be?
The Day Sky
Among Strong Men
Beautiful Hands
Old Sweet Beggar
Out of the Mouths of a Thousand Birds
I Knew We Would Be Friends
Build a House for Men
That Sounds Wonderful
A Singing Cleaning Woman
Your Shape of Laughter
Something I Have Learned
And a Big Herd of Sweet Goats
Narrow the Difference
The Small Table of Time and Space
The Happy Virus
The Wonderful Lawlessness
They Call to You to Sing
Your Medicine
It Happens All the Time in Heaven
The Guardians of His Beauty
The Subject Tonight Is Love
I Saw You Dancing
Never Say It Is Not God
Absolutely Clear
Ten Thousand Idiots
To Anything That Moved
Carrying God
I Cherish Your Ears
Deepening the Wonder
Will Beat You Up
I Follow Barefoot
Join Me in the Pure Atmosphere
Some Angels Grumble
Playing in the Brilliance
Like the Ganges
And Acting So Cool
A Potted Plant
Just Sit There
A Suspended Blue Ocean

A rich collection that brings the great Sufi poet Hafiz to Western readers, from bestselling poet Daniel Ladinsky

Perhaps more than any other Persian poet, it is Hafiz who most fully accesses the mystical, healing dimensions of verse. Acclaimed poet Daniel Ladinsky has made it his life s work to create modern, inspired renderings of the world s most profound spiritual poetry. Through Ladinsky s renderings, Hafiz s voice comes alive across the centuries, singing his timeless message of love.

With this stunning collection, Ladinsky has once again succeeded brilliantly in capturing the essence of one of Islam s greatest poetic and spiritual voices.

Ladinsky is a master who will be remembered for finally bringing Hafiz alive in the West. Alexandra Marks, The Christian Science Monitor