Persian Poem Translated by A Z Foreman from Poems Found in Translation

Poems Found In Translation: “Hafiz: Ghazal 136 "The Grail of Jamshed" (From Persian)”

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Hafiz: Ghazal 136 "The Grail of Jamshed" (From Persian) Posted: 14 Jul 2015 05:30 PM PDT This poem is one of very few ghazals that could in any sense be called "narrative." There is a discernible course of events, beginning with a search which leads the speaker to the Wineshop, where a conversation with the proprietor occurs. The substance of that conversation can be interpreted in various ways, depending to some degree on editorial choices. Most overtly, the topic is the nature of mystical gnosis and how it should and should not be transmitted. Read more loosely, one can see in it a discussion of how openly subversive one can be without endangering one's own life. And there are other interpretations galore. Myself, I find it most illuminating to see the figure of Hallāj as an example of how a charlatan can use the truth (or The Truth) in dishonest and self-serving ways. Or, as Blake put it "a truth that's told with bad intent/ beats all the lies you can invent." It would be reasonable to suppose that an overtly and unarguably narrative ghazal would present fewer transmission problems than most of Hafiz' lyric poems, since the structure would limit the accretion and transposition of verses. Such a supposition, however, would be quite mistaken. The manuscripts differ in the ordering, number, and content of the verses in this poem as much as any other in Hafiz' divan. The only difference is that, because the poem is narrative and depends on the cumulative effect of verses in their linear totality, the variations matter all the more. The different verse-orderings found in the manuscripts of the poem, the different verses excluded or included in them, and the different variants found for the same verse, alter the poem's meaning considerably. In Khanlari's edition of Hafiz' divan, the verses corresponding to couplets 10-12 of my English are absent, and therefore Hallaj comes across as a bona fide mystic who made the mistake of being too honest, rather than as a charlatan who used the truth for selfish ends, and ultimately paid for his self-aggrandizement with his life. Or take the lines His heart was gone for God, though God was there.　 　　He cried O God because he could not see. Depending on the manuscript one consults, this verse may come where I have put it. Or it may come between the what are the third and fourth verses of my text. Or between the thirteenth and fourteenth. Or it may be absent altogether. The different versions yield radically different readings, with the verse referring to the speaker, to Al-Hallaj, or to Christ, depending on ordering. Ghazal 136: The Grail of Jamshed By Hafiz Translated by A.Z. Foreman For years, my questing heart kept asking me　 　　 where on earth Jamshed's ancient grail could be. In search of something it already had,　 　　 it supplicated strangers ceaselessly. It sought a pearl that slipped the temporal shell　 　　 from wayward men that maunder by the sea. Last night I brought the Wineshop's Sage my problem,　 　　that where I had been blinded, he might see.　 I saw him, laughing, lift a cup of wine　 　　 wherein a thousand visions answered me. Said I to him: "When did God gift you with　 　　 this grail revealing all reality?" Said he: "The day His Mind Almighty raised　 　　the heavens' vault of lapis lazuli." Said he: "Recall the smitten Al-Hallaj  ã€€ 　　they hanged on high upon the gallows tree... His crime was that he told the world of things　 　　meant to be contemplated privately. His heart was gone for God, though God was there.　 　　He cried O God because he could not see. His heart held truth, as soil conceals a seed.　 　　His mind put forth glossed leaflets, like a tree. Moses' white hand would shame his sleights of hand　 　　As once it foiled Pharaonic sorcery. Were the Holy Ghost to lend its grace again, ã€€ 　　others like Christ would help the blind to see."　 Said I: "Why do the locks of beauty bind me?"　 　　"Because of Hafiz' love-crazed heart" said he. Notes: V 1: Jamshed's goblet revealed everything in the world to anyone who looked into it V 8: Hallāj, a martyr and mystic who was executed in 922 AD in Baghdad, supposedly for having declared ana l-ḥaqq "I am God the Truth." His sleight of hand tricks, which he touted as miracles, are referred to later in the poem. The Original: سال ها دل طلبِ جامِ جم از ما مى كرد   وآنچه خود داشت زِ بيگانه تمنّا مى كرد گَوهَرى كَز صدفِ كون Ùˆ مكان بيرون است   طلب از گمشدگانِ لبِ دريا مى كرد مشكلِ خويش بر پيرِ مغان بردم دوش   كو بتأييدِ نظر حلِّ معمّا مى كرد ديدمش خرَّم Ùˆ خوش دل قدحِ باده به دست   وندر آن آينه صد گونه تماشا مى كرد گفت اين جامِ جهان بين به تو ÙƒÙŽÙ‰ داد حكيم   گفت آن روز كه اين گمبدِ مينا مى كرد گفت آن يار كزو گشت سرِ دار بلند   جرمش اين بود كه اسرار هويدا مى كرد بيدلى در همه احوال خدا با او بود   او نميديدش Ùˆ از دور خدايا مى كرد آنكه چون غنچه دلش رازِ حقيقت بنهفت ورقِ خاطر از اين نكته محشّا مى كرد اين همه شعبدۀ عقل كه مى كرد اينجا ساحرى پيش عصا Ùˆ يدِ بيضا مى كرد فيضِ روح القدس ار باز مدد فرمايد   ديگران هم بكنند آنچه مسيحا مى كرد گفتمش سلسلۀ زلفِ بتان از پىِ چيست؟    گفت حافظ گله اى از دلِ شيدا مى كرد Romanization: Sālhā dil talab-i jām-i jām az mā mÄ“kard Wān či xwad dāšt zi bÄ“gāna tamannā mÄ“kard GawharÄ“, kaz sadaf-i kawn o makān bÄ“rÅ«nast, Talab az gumÅ¡udagān-i lab-i daryā mÄ“kard. MuÅ¡kil-i xwÄ“Å¡ bar-i pÄ«r- muɣān burdam dōš, Kō ba ta'yÄ«d-i nazar hall-i mu'ammā mÄ“kard. DÄ«damaÅ¡ xurram o xwaÅ¡dil qadah-i bāda ba dast Wandar ān āyina sad gÅ«na tamāšā mÄ“kard Guftam "Ä«n jām-i jahānbÄ«n ba to kay dād hakÄ«m" Guft "ān rōz ki Ä«n gumbad-i mÄ«nā mÄ“kard" Guft "ān yār kaz ō gaÅ¡t sar-i dār buland JurmaÅ¡ Ä«n bÅ«d ki asrār huwaydā mÄ“kard Ä€nki čūn É£unča dilaÅ¡ rāz-i haqÄ«qat binahuft Waraq-i xātir az Ä«n nukta muhaššā mÄ“kard BÄ“dilÄ“ dar hama ahwāl xudā bā ō bÅ«d ÅŒ namÄ“dÄ«daÅ¡ o az dÅ«r xudāyā mÄ“kard. Īn hama Å¡u'bada-i 'aql ki mÄ“kard Ä«njā SāhirÄ« pÄ“Å¡-i 'asā o yad-i bayzā mÄ“kard Fayz-i rÅ«h-ul-qudus ar bāz madad farmāyad DÄ«garān ham bukunand ān či masÄ«hā mÄ“kard GuftamaÅ¡: "Silsila-i zulf-i butān az pay-i čīst?" Guft: "Hāfiz gilaÄ“ az dil-i Å¡aydā mÄ“kard."