Hafez
Hafez Shirazi, Hafis, or simply Hafez (Shiraz, Iran, 1325-1390 CE) was a Persian poet who has achieved universal renown due to the perfection and influence of his poems.
He was a Sufi mystic; he dedicated some poems to the rulers of his time to gain their favor. His masterpiece is a collection of poems known as "The Divan of Hafez."
Essentially, this work is composed of approximately 500 ghazals, a poetic form highly valued in the East, which is basically structured in poems of five to seven couplets ("beits"). The depth and meaning of these couplets, which can be enjoyed or studied independently of the poem as a whole, are vast (even each verse can be studied as an autonomous element).
The themes of Hafez's work are the experiences of human existence and also include odes to wine (this clashes sharply with the fact that Persia, at the time of Hafez's life, had long been Islamized).
His work is so unique and of such high poetic quality that his tomb in Shiraz receives many pilgrims annually, and people in Iran sometimes like to recite his verses in everyday conversations, just as they like to open a book of his poems to a random page to learn "that person's future in a poetic way."
He is, along with Rumi and Saadi, one of the best-known poets outside the borders of his country of origin (the former Persian Empire, now Iran).
He was a Sufi mystic; he dedicated some poems to the rulers of his time to gain their favor. His masterpiece is a collection of poems known as "The Divan of Hafez."
Essentially, this work is composed of approximately 500 ghazals, a poetic form highly valued in the East, which is basically structured in poems of five to seven couplets ("beits"). The depth and meaning of these couplets, which can be enjoyed or studied independently of the poem as a whole, are vast (even each verse can be studied as an autonomous element).
The themes of Hafez's work are the experiences of human existence and also include odes to wine (this clashes sharply with the fact that Persia, at the time of Hafez's life, had long been Islamized).
His work is so unique and of such high poetic quality that his tomb in Shiraz receives many pilgrims annually, and people in Iran sometimes like to recite his verses in everyday conversations, just as they like to open a book of his poems to a random page to learn "that person's future in a poetic way."
He is, along with Rumi and Saadi, one of the best-known poets outside the borders of his country of origin (the former Persian Empire, now Iran).
