Full Reviews of Hafez:
Dance of Life
Library Journal (August 1988)
This introduction to the noted Persian poet Hafez is an intellectual gem.
It offers not only a selection of Hafez's verses in Persian and in romanized
Persian (for those who wish an idea of the cadence of the original), but
two English translations and two sets of illustrations: complementing Michael
Boylan's modern translations, illustrated by striking works of Persian art/calligraphy,
are translations bordered by traditional Persian art that was done by Wilberforce
Clarke in the 19th century. A delightful introduction to a major world-class
author that belongs in any library interested in world literature.
Small Press Magazine (April 1988)
Buy this book. Sent for review was an edition deluxe, wrapped, illuminated
by six-color printing and bound with a sewn bookmark by Italy's Arnoldo
Mondadori Editore. With its stunning design and significant text, the first
edition of 2,500 softbound and 2,500 hardbound allows for sales in two price
brackets. Worthy of both general and scholarly interest, libraries might
want separate circulating and noncirculating copies.
Hafez (1320-1390) is overwhelmingly recognized as "the poet's poet
in the Persian language and the literary artist who best represents cultural
and aesthetic ideals past and present." His poems, composed as ghazals,
culminate a lyric verse tradition that began five centuries before him and
includes Omar Khayyam, premier Sufi poet Jalaloddin Rumi, as well as the
amatory, descriptive, secular, homiletic and mystical strains harmonized
in Hafez. Perceived as a rend ("reckless spirit"), his continuing
popularity has much to do with a persona who is "an ardent individualist
and nonconformist . . . unconstrained by prevailing mores." Hafez occupies
that heroic anti-establishment ground reserved for the few who posses such
private moral character that they can be daring and blasphemous in a society
with deep institutions of propriety, formality and approved style.
In an era when Americans have been misinformed by propaganda's simplicities
and stereotypes of Iranians meant to inflame fear and hatred, and at a time
when we possess national ignorance of the dipolarities and dualities of
Islamic thought, this book is especially welcome. It clears the air. Communicating
on many levels, Hafez's Dance of Life is beautiful, readable and timely.
Abstracta Iranica (Vol 12 - 1989)
In fact, this colorful book is result of a collaborative effort concentrated
on twelve ghazals from approximately five hundred composed by the fourteenth-century
Persian poet. Each ghazal is represented by a calligraphic writing of the
original Persian (by Amir Hossein Tabnak), a literal prose translation (by
Wilberforce Clarke), a verse translation (by Michael Boylan), and an illustration
inspired by the ghazal's words, themes and motifs (by Hossein Zenderoudi).
Although the calligraphic and illustrative works present little of artistic
or scholarly value, they do present diverse perspectives on the shape, form
and meaning of each ghazal to various readers. The verse translations are
relatively free renderings wherein the themes of the ghazals some to life
in a new idiom. Some anecdotes related to Hafez's life and an article on
Hafez's relevance for modern-day Iranians (by Michael Hilllmann) complete
the contents of this book. Although the book makes no claim to genuine scholarship,
it does reflect the attempt of Iranians who have been driven into alien
ands in the past decade or so, to present their literary heritage in as
impressive a way as possible. Return to top of page
Middle East Journal
Hafiz (c. 13201390) is decidedly the greatest Iyric poet of Iran, praised
by the critics for the inimitability of his style and the broad sweep of
his meanings. He has enjoyed the esteem and admiration not only of his fellow
countrymen but also of Persian scholars and poetry lovers outside Iran.
The poet came to the notice of English readers for the first time in 1771
when Sir William Jones published one of Hafiz's poems in his book A Grammar
of the Persian Language. The tradition initiated by Jones was carried further
by such translators of the 18th and 19th centuries as John Richardson, Thomas
Law, John Nott, John Haddon Hindley, Herman Bicknell, E. H. Palmer, Gertrude
Bell, Walter Leaf, and Henry Wilberforce Clarke. This trend, despite the
challenges involved, has continued during our time. Thus, the late Professor
A. J. Arberry, who was himself engaged in translating Hafiz, wrote in 1947:
"Hafiz presents unusually difficult, if not insoluble, problems to
the translator; these problems have not deterred the bold in the past, and
they will assuredly not discourage the adventurous in the future."
The book under review is yet another example of the ongoing interest in
bringing Hafiz nearer to the English literary audience. It contains 12 poems,
chosen from among the better known pieces of Hafiz, and translated into
English verse by Michael Boylan. The translated poems, which are unrhymed,
present a "modern" version of Hafiz. They stay close to the general
meaning of the original, their expression is clear and simple, and the feeling
of Hafiz shines through them. They are accompanied by the prose renderings
of Wilberforce Clarke, whose explanations not only help in clearing up certain
ambiguities found in Boylan's translations, but also provide the reader
with an insight into the allegorical dimensions of Hafiz's poetry. For those
who are acquainted with Persian, the book gives the original text of the
poems. A separate section is devoted to the transliteration of the selected
pieces and to hints regarding their recitation, including notes on the poet
and his poems. This section will be especially useful to the uninitiated
reader still new to the technical and interpretive subtleties of Persian
poetry. A fuller discussion of Hafiz's qualities as a poet within the Persian
Iyric and Sufi tradition, his continued relevance, and the appeal he holds
for the modern generation of Iranian writers could be obtained from Michael
Hillmann's essay which ends the volume. The book is artistically produced,
containing illuminations by Hossein Zenderoudi, a contemporary Persian painter,
and border illustrations reproduced from the 15th century manuscript of
Sultan Ahmad Jala'ir's book of collected poems, now in the Freer Gallery
of Art, Washington, D.C. All in all, the volume is a useful addition to
the existing works on Hafiz and will assuredly justify the hopes of its
contributors whose goal, according to the declared purpose of the book,
was "to make Hafez's poetry as enjoyable to readers in English as it
is to Iranians and as accessible to the lay lover of poetry as it is to
the linguist and scholar."
Return to top of page
Journal of Iranian Studies (Vol 21,
#3-4, 1988)
At times, the most difficult part of writing a review lies in determining
exactly what it is that one is reviewing. Hafez: Dance of Life is, for this
reason, a difficult and, at the same time, an interesting subject. At first
glance it appears to be a loosely articulated pastiche: English translations
of Hafez by Michael Boylan; illustrations by a Paris trained, Persian artist,
Hossein Zenderoudi; some ludicrously archaic prose renderings by the 19th
century orientalist H. W. Clarke; fine calligraphic renderings by Amir Hossein
Tabnak; transliteration, guides to pronunciation, and audio tape (unavailable
to this reviewer) of the Persian and English versions; some notes both by
an unnamed editor and by Clarke; some traditional anecdotes about Hafez,
and an essay or "afterword" by Michael Hillmann. What is this?
Who is it for? Why is all this stuff in this rather short volume. Who is
dancing what life?
I raise these questions not to disparage the book but because the book fascinates
me and I intend to offer an interpretation of it that answers most if not
all of them. The notion of interpretation is crucial here; I do not believe
that this is a book that can be read as an attempt at scholarship (even
the foreword points this out); it is not even, in my opinion, an introduction
to Hafez directed at a certain audience (e.g., Western poetry buffs). Although
the editors say of it, "Our goal is to make Hafez's poetry as enjoyable
to readers in English as it is to Iranians and as accessible to the lay
lover of poetry as it is to the linguist and scholar," is this the
real goal, the real audience? Why then such strange inclusions as the lines,
written with a steel or ball-point pen in the hard to decipher semishekasteh
style of modern Iranian handwriting, included on the pages of notes citing,
without translation, relevant couplets by such poets as Sa'di, Selmdn, Kamale
Khojandi. What would an English speaker who needs two translations, a guide
to pronunciation, notes and an essay to approach the text make of these?
The ostensible goal is a naive one, but its manifest impossibility-as everything
that follows in the book serves to demonstrate-points toward the real mission
of this work and demands that it be read and interpreted more as a work
of art than as a work about art.
This is a book not so much about Hafez of Shiraz as about Hafez of the Iranian
diaspora. It represents an attempt not so much to introduce Hafez to the
West as to introduce the transplanted Iranian community by beginning from
a focal point of its cultural core. The book struggles to say, "Here
we are, we Iranians. This is our past and an abiding truth of our present."
Michael Hillmann's concluding essay points out quite clearly how Hafez is
engrained in Iranian culture, while pointing out, incidentally, how little
hope there really is of introducing Iranians to the West through an intermediary
like Hafez. It is all too complex, layers upon layers of Iranian experience
that will not, that cannot be transmitted. So the excellent renderings of
Boylan are not enough. Like all translations, they only work in the small
area of overlap where the circles of Iranian and Western culture intersect.
Thus, we get the antiquated, "literal" prose renderings of Clarke-perhaps
something "closer" to the Persian will add more!-and like all
"literal" prose renderings, these fail abjectly, turning masterpieces
of Persian language into ridiculous parodies of English ("Plant thy
foot for farewell to him, for [quickly in death] passing heshall be").
Then come the notes, and then the essay, more notes, a sprinkling of mystery
citations, and thus the original encounter with Hafezaskeyto-thesoul is
lost in a blizzard of references; and the purity of the desire to be known
is tainted by the intrusion of all manner of intermediaries.
In truth, Zenderoudi's art work tells the whole story. He presents picture
after picture built up out of layer upon layer of writingwriting too crude,
too copybookish to be called calligraphy (real calligraphy is represented
by the nasta'liq rendering of Tabnak) but powerful examples of the Persian
style. He paints with text upon text where words build words on a dense
background of words, all resolving here and there into recognizable images
and icons-the concentric spheres, the moon, the ubiquitous scatterings of
triangles (which Hillman tells us represent Zenderoudi's mysticism)-tests
of poetry overlain by and creating the name of God. This is true representation
of what Hafez really is; despite the purity of our motives or the purity
of our love, his is a tangled, dense, multilayered, ambiguous verse drawing
together all the cultural threads from which the Iranian experience is woven.
It is difficult to see how that experience can be known from without or,
perhaps even more painful to contemplate, how it can be carried on by a
generation of Iranians in exile whose sons and daughters, like the children
of the editors, "learned the lyrics of 'chicken soup with rice but
no Hafez."
The invisible subtext to all of this is the tragedy of a community in exile,
a community embedded in a context that cannot help but see it as alien,
a community torn between unsatisfactory choices: to abandon one's cultural
identity and join the larger community, to cling to that identity and remain
forever a stranger in a strange land, estranged even from one's own children.
Hafez: Dance of Life, is a moment in the dance that goes on in space between
communities, where they approach by never quite touch, where the reaching
out by both sides occurs, where our beliefs that there can be global understanding,
peace, and love undergo a cruel testing.
Return to top of page
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and
African Studies (1989)
The work under review is another splendidly produced volume of Persian literature
from the publishers of Nima Yushij's When the Elephants Came and Sadiq Hadayat's
Patient Stone in translation. It is a timely production since the fourteenthcentury
Persian poet and thinker Khvaja Shams alDin Muhammad Hafiz, of Shiraz, has
only recently been reinstated in the Islamic Republic of Iran as one of
the country's greatest poetical luminaries. This convenient publication
should undoubtedly attract a new body of readers who may hitherto have only
occasionally heard of the sage of Shiraz and who may not be well equipped
linguistically to appreciate the intricacies of his poetical language and
the underlying philosophical ideas so dear to the Persians.
Hafiz's poetry has long stimulated great interest among Persian scholars
in the Western world. There have been many attempts to popularize his ghazals
and to attract a broader readership, but these translations have not aroused
anything like the enthusiasm that 'Umar Khayyam did in the Englishspeaking
world during the second half of the nineteenth century, no doubt because
the latter presents far fewer difficulties for the European reader.
The editors of this new selection of Hafiz's poems and the accompanying
translations mark a new start with a more comprehensive approach and a skillful
use of modern technology, but whether it will fare better than its predecessors,
only time will tell. The main intention of the editors is clearly to convey
to the uninitiated reader the multifaceted strength and subtlety of the
poetic language, and to present the major ideas underpinning the literary
and cultural heritage of Iran. The task of giving a coherent account of
these features poses enormous difficulties if much of the artistry of Hafiz
is not to be lost.
The editors have sought to provide "a multiple perspective for the
reader at every level: from the Iyric to the metaphysical, from free illumination
to disciplined calligraphy, from contemporary verse translation to an English
translation." To this end, the number of poems selected for treatment
has been limited to 12 out of a corpus of around 500. The book is divided
into various sections: part I comprises freeverse translations by the American
poet and philosopher Michael Boylan and the nineteenthcentury translations
of H. Wilberforce Clarke (2vols., Calcutta, 1891), and the ghazals from
the edition of Qazvini/Ghani written in nasta'liq by Amir Hossein Tabnak,
interspersed with modern drawings by Hossein Zenderoudi, in an effort to
provide an Einstimmung with the world of Hafiz.
Part 2 gives some basic rules to "help the Persian reader in accurate
pronunciation and recitation." These are based on such authorities
as ElwellSutton (The Persian metres) and Khanlarl (Vazni shi'ri Farsi),
and understandably concentrate on practical application rather than systematic
description. However, questions of accuracy do arise. Thus it seems confusing
to find "connectives" mentioned as a subsection of the vowels
in Persian and similar problems arise in relation to the consonants. In
addition, the phonological system is not always explained adequately. Moreover,
to describe the ArabicPersian alphabet as "Persian letters" rather
than the more usual "Arabic script" is unhelpful to the nonspecialist
reader seeking to identify the alphabet.
This section is followed by the texts of the 12 poems, again in nasta'liq,
and in transliteration, with annotations, some by the editors and some selectively
reproduced from Clarke's translation. There is useful information in these
commentaries but they could have been fuller for the European readers unfamiliar
with the inferences and hidden messages of the text, who may well feel the
ground giving under his feet at times.
In his Afterword, Michael Hillmann describes and analyses the unique appeal
which Hafiz has had for his readers down through the centuries, his influence
reaching as far as radical modern poets in the secular camp, like Furugh
Farrukhzad and even recent Islamic revolutionaries, like Ruhullah Khumaini.
But the unique appeal of Hafiz's ghazals for the modern Iranian reader cannot
be explained solely by the masterly incorporation of various artistic and
philosophical strands in his distinctive personal style. Hafiz is unique
because, as Jalal Ali Ahmad once aptly put it, he embodies "the Iranian
world view." This quintessential Iranianness found its expression in
"pairs of opposites or contraries" and in the view that "bipolarities
and dualities are part and parcel of the lives of thinking individuals and
that, more importantly, cultural dilemmas are not supposed to be resolved,"
to quote Hillmann's account of the attraction of Hafiz's poetry for the
modern reader. It is precisely this ambivalence which opens vistas on to
the metaphysical and mystical aspects of the Iranian cosmos so subtly controlled
and released in Hafiz's poetic work.
While it is extremely difficult for the Westerner, to whom the present work
is addressed, to penetrate these various layers of a rich poetic tradition,
Michael Boylan's sensitive freeverse translations supported by a well produced
cassette readings of the Persian and English texts, have opened a way in.
This is indeed, the right way to bring the ghazals closer to a wider Englishspeaking
audience.
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