The Gift by Hafiz Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Gift
Book Review: A Rare Gift
Summary: 5 Stars
I have yet to find words in the journey of my life that have moved me more. The Gift is a timeless and multi-facetted jewel. I am deeply and eternally grateful that this manuscript found its way into my hands. I have carried it with me every day for the past (5 years?). It is simply Divine magic. Thank you dear author, translator, whoever, whatever... I am watchful for more from your wine cellar. Patiently waiting... and sending love.
Book Review: A Sight For Sore Eyes
Summary: 5 Stars
Hafiz is playful, joyful and full of love for God. We learn to look at the world through his wonderful eyes, and laugh with him at the whimsy that he sees.
How can you go wrong when you read a poem titled "The Fish and I will Chat," in which the fish tell him: "Hey Hafiz, We see you know the joy of our existence, We see you have learned how meditation can free you from Land, Mind, Debts, Alimony-The Whole Works, And like us, let you carouse all day in God."
Small wonder Goethe, Emerson, Nietzche, Pushkin, Turgenev, Carlyle and Garcia Lorca were all Hafiz fans.
Hafiz is Sufism exemplified, it is thousands of years of wisdom condensed in a few poems that open the heart and open the mind to the world of an intimate and loving God.
Book Review: A True Gift
Summary: 5 Stars
No title could be better for this book than The Gift. It is indeed a Gift, and it continues it's giving long after the cover is closed on these wonderful versions of poetry by the immortal Persian poet Hafiz. When these poems are read, especially aloud, they never fail to transform my Montana home into The Tavern--the Divine Wineshop--where The Friend has always dispensed kernels of infinite love and wisdom. If you enjoyed Daniel Ladinsky's other Hafiz poetry collections, I Heard God Laughing and The Subject Tonight is Love, don't miss The Gift. The Gift is Ladinsky's most powerful work to date--an intimate glimpse of the grandeur and breadth of Hafiz, and the distillation and ripening of Ladinsky's many years of study and absorption of the great poet and Sufi master. Lover's of Rumi will revel in this Hafiz collection.
Mr. Ladinsky's work is a treasure for our age. His interpretations of Hafiz bring forth the subtle music of the verse in a way we can all embrace. From the sublime to the irreverant to the witty, Ladinsky makes Hafiz sing for each one of us. Like a multifaceted diamond, the poems are ever changing--ever revealing some new aspect of themselves at each reading. And we are also changed as we immerse ourselves in Hafiz. We are lifted to a place beyond our ordinary experience. We are seated at the Tavern Table with the Vintner Himself and then transported to another realm.
As Hafiz says in one of the Gift's poems:
"It is all just a love contest and I never lose. Now you have another good reason to spend more time with Me."
Read from The Gift at your poetry group and watch what happens!
Book Review: A Work of Spiritual Opportunism
Summary: 1 Stars
Living in Iran years ago, I first encountered the poet Hafiz as a beloved Iranian folk figure. I have read with pleasure and an open heart many versions of his poems, both in Persian (Farsi) and in English. It was with high expectations because of reviews that I bought this book, only to find Mr. Ladinsky's poems literally unrelated to the original Hafiz. Instead, based on his own explanation, they appear to be simply a product of his imagination. The author has no background in Iranian culture and speaks no Persian. Instead, he obviously uses the commercially successful style of Coleman Barks (of Rumi notoriety) by reading someone else's word-for-word translation and then creating new verses, the intent being to "capture the spirit" of the original. But these verses are so distant from Hafiz that one wonders how they qualify even as "renderings," an amorphous term for Mr. Barks' practice that allows the bypassing of usual literary standards.Rendering is much less demanding intellectually than translating as well as an easier way of becoming published, and it contains a built-in literary defense mechanism (the plea of subjectivity) against criticism for poor scholarship or inauthenticity. Rendering is not new. Before the Iranian Revolution, one task of Iranian academia was the separation of authentic work of Hafiz from a mass of imitation poetry falsely attributed to him. Now comes this work that bears substantially more resemblance to the tone of Mr. Barks, its apparent stylistic model, than to Hafiz. Even giving the author the benefit of the doubt for sincere devotion and industry, this book and his other two similar works best fit into the category of "spiritual opportunism."
This phrase, "spiritual opportunism," appeared recently in a national article about several authors (Andrews, Rampa, Morgan, et al.) who have written about mystical customs (Native American, Tibetan and Australian Aboriginal) in such a way that they now are accused of appropriating other cultures' spiritual traditions, either through ignorance or for the purpose of personal gain. Mr. Ladinsky's work seems to take appropriation even further than the others. Not only does it superficially represent a spiritual tradition of a subjected foreign culture, it actually offers self-created verse as representative of a specific poet. Even though Iranians lack a voice to make their great poets known in an authentic manner within the current culture of pop spirituality, no amount of commercial success can disguise the truth that this book is a misrepresentation of the poetry of Hafiz and that it does a grave disservice to Iranian poetry and spiritual traditions.
Book Review: A gift
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought a copy of this book and could not find other copies locally so I ordered 5 copies from Amazon. I gave them to friends. Every page is special to all. Open this book anywhere and start. His words touch the soul. If you like Rumi, buy this you will not be disapointed.