Songs of Hafiz

Songs of Hafiz by active 14th century Ḥāfiẓ is a collection of lyric poetry (ghazals and odes) written in the late Middle Ages. It is a mystical and sensuous celebration of wine, love, beauty, and spiritual longing, drawing on Sufi symbolism and Persian lore to contemplate joy, devotion, and the brevity of life.

The book opens with The Book of the Tavern Keeper, a rapturous address to the Saki (cupbearer) where wine becomes a divine fire, Jamshid’s magic cup reveals hidden truths, and fallen kings remind the singer to seize the moment and be generous, culminating in praise for Shah Mansur. The Book of the Singer calls on music—lute, flute, and drum—to lift grief’s veil, summon Beauty, and measure time’s passing, while invoking legendary figures (Efrasiab, Piran, Rustem) to show how glory fades. The Book of Lyrics gathers varied ghazals that plead with a coy beloved, mock zealotry and hypocrisy, extol Shiraz, Ruknabad, and spring’s rose-and-nightingale world, and urge patience, charity, and joyous surrender to fate; it includes laments of exile, a poignant verse at his son’s grave, brief aphorisms, and occasional praises of patrons. Throughout, recurring images—the cup, the rose, the nightingale, the east wind, the cypress—fuse earthly passion with mystical insight, moving swiftly between ecstasy, reflection, and elegy.