Poems from the Divan of Hafiz

By: Gertrude Bell - translator

Narrated by: Denis Daly

Together with Omar Khayyam and Jalāl ud-Din Mohammad Rumi, Khwaja Shams-ud-din Mohammed Hafiz-e Shirazi, more commonly known just as Háfiz, is considered one of the major figures of classical Persian literature.

Gertrude Lothian Bell (1868 - 1926) was a traveler, archeologist, political advisor, and authority on Middle Eastern history and literature.

The anthology of Hafiz's poetry, known today simply as the Divan, contains over 600 poems, from which Bell translated this selection of 43 odes.

In the introduction, Bell writes: The sum of Hafiz's philosophy seems to be, that though there is little of which we can be certain, that little must always be the object of all men's desire; each of us will set out upon the search for it along a different road, and if none will find his road easy to follow, each may, if he be wise, discover compensations for his toil by the wayside.

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