HAFIZ: Essays, Talks, Projects on the Immortal Poet by Paul Smith Contents: Introduction by Richard Lee; The Life of Hafiz; Hafiz's Influence on the East & the West, The English Translations of Hafiz; Hafiz and His Translator, Sufism and God; Poetry, Life and Times of Hafiz of Shiraz; UNESCO and Hafiz; Hafiz for Our Time; Preface to Original Divan. 275 pages "Once a person has studied Hafiz he has reached the top of the mountain, from whence he beholds the sublimity of the immanence of God." Inayat Khan "Hafiz defies you to show him or put him in a condition inopportune or ignoble... He fears nothing. He sees too far; he sees throughout; such is the only man I wish to see or be." Emerson "Hafiz is highly esteemed by his countrymen as Shakespeare by us, and deserves as serious consideration." A.J. Arberry"There is no equal to Hafiz in poetry. He was a Perfect Master... His Divan is the best book in the world because it engenders feelings which ultimately lead to illumination." Meher Baba "It is as if his mental eye, endowed with wonderful acuteness of vision, had penetrated into provinces of thought which we of a later age were destined to inhabit." Gertrude Bell "Hafiz breathes originality in all his works ... in no other country, was ever born a genius so rare. He dwells on the degeneracy of his age, on the vanity of the world on universal charity, and on toleration and liberty of conscience." H. Wilberforce Clarke "We may state, without incurring the danger of modernization, that in these ghazals Hafiz applied quite consciously and consistently a method of revealing his hero's inner condition at which European literature first arrived only in the 20th century." Michael J. Zand "The best Musician of Words." Edward Fitzgerald (Translator of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyyat.) "...sublime amorous ghazals." Lorca "Only the most enlightened of beings can benefit from the deepest human joys because within such beings resides a unique force of freedom and rapture. Their awareness rests in the house of spirit and their soul mates with their awareness, meaning that which is discovered through awareness emanates from their soul and that which shines in the soul is known with awareness. This unity of spirit and mind is the legacy of Hafiz." Nietzsche. Comments on Paul Smith's Translation of Hafiz's 'Divan'. 'It is not a joke. The two books... the English version of all the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished.' Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. 'It is a brilliant feat... the two books, the Introduction and the Divan. I am much thankful and grateful.' Dr. Zein ab Abedin Mo'tamin (D. Lit.) Tehran. 'I have never seen such a good translation.' Mr B. Khorramshai, Academy of Philosophy, Tehran. 'I would like to help to introduce your book which I loved to all Iranians and maybe to the Middle East.' Mr. Ali Tarrassoli. Shiraz University. 'I was very impressed with the beauty of these books.' Dr. R.K. Barz. Asian Studies, Australian National University. 'If there is anything Paul Smith does not know about Hafiz, the 14th Century Persian poet, it probably is not worth knowing... remarkably accurate... a remarkable feat... an inexhaustible well of inspired images...' Rosemary Adam, The Age Newspaper. "Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of works in English into Persian and knower of Hafiz's Divan off by heart. Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of over 130 books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Pashtu and other languages of Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, Obeyd Zakani, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Nesimi, Yunus Emre, Lalla Ded, Mu'in, Mahsati, Bulleh Shah, Shah Latif and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children's books and a dozen screenplays. amazon.com/author/smithpa