{"id":5841,"date":"2017-07-26T08:58:31","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T15:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=5841"},"modified":"2017-07-26T08:58:31","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T15:58:31","slug":"hafiz-daniel-ladinsky-the-great-religions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/26\/hafiz-daniel-ladinsky-the-great-religions\/","title":{"rendered":"Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky) – The Great Religions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Great Religions
\nby Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The
\nGreat religions are the
\nShips,<\/p>\n

Poets the life
\nBoats.<\/p>\n

Every sane person I know has jumped
\nOverboard.<\/p>\n

That is good for business
\nIsn\u2019t it<\/p>\n

Hafiz?<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master<\/a>, by Daniel Ladinsky<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Erik Hansen<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

This is one of my favorite poems by Ladinsky. It winks knowingly at us, inviting us in on the joke. Without saying much, it suggests a lot about the relationship between formal ideas of religion, genuine insight, freedom, and the poetic impulse. <\/p>\n

Ready, one, two, three \u2014 JUMP!<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky)<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nLove Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Subject Tonight Is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nI Heard God Laughing: Renderings of Hafiz<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n
\n<\/td>\n\nHafiz (Daniel Ladinsky)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

US (1945? \u2013 )
\nMuslim \/ Sufi<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

People sometimes wonder why I don\u2019t feature more of Hafiz\u2019s poetry from Daniel Ladinsky\u2019s book, The Gift<\/i>. They are such delightful, ecstatic, irreverent poems that have inspired so many people\u2026<\/p>\n

Ladinsky\u2019s books put me in an awkward spot. I really like the poetry from Ladinsky\u2019s books\u2026 but, well, they aren\u2019t actually by Hafiz. His collection of poetry entitled The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master<\/i> actually contains no lines of poetry written by the great Sufi poet Hafiz!<\/p>\n

Daniel Ladinsky seems to acknowledge this in his introduction to the book, when he writes, \u201cI feel my relationship to Hafiz defies all reason\u2026 I had an astounding dream in which I saw Hafiz as an Infinite Fountaining Sun (I saw him as God), who sang hundreds of lines of his poetry to me in English, asking me to give that message to \u2018my artists and seekers.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

You might say that Ladinsky\u2019s poetry is \u201cinspired by\u201d Hafiz. Or, if you prefer a broader interpretation, you could say Ladinsky channels Hafiz. But his \u201ctranslations\u201d are not the historical writings of Hafiz. From the more limited scholar\u2019s definition, these are poems by Daniel Ladinsky, not Hafiz.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s what I do: I enjoy Ladinsky\u2019s playful, profound poetry, but I look to other books to savor the historical poetry of Hafiz that Sufis and seekers have delighted in for centuries.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to explore and compare them, here are some links to start with:<\/p>\n

\u2013 More of Ladinsky\u2019s Hafiz<\/a>
\n\u2013 Historical Hafiz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Great Religions by Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky) The Great religions are the Ships, Poets the life Boats. Every sane person I know has jumped Overboard. That is good for business Isn\u2019t it Hafiz? \u2014 from The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master, by Daniel Ladinsky \/ Image by Erik Hansen \/ This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1082,46,47],"class_list":["post-5841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-daniel-ladinsky","tag-hafez","tag-hafiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5842,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5841\/revisions\/5842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}