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Summary: Come! Drink the Gift of Hafiz!
Review: The heart of the 14th century Perfect Master, Hafiz, shows us how we could-why we should, TRULY live these wondrous, desolate, madcap 21st century lives of ours.Ladinsky's Hafiz is a brightest jewel. In reading this third volume I find still yet more exquisite fresh breezes and the kindest of possible human gestures. There is not a dry eye in any room of my house. If I could read Hafiz in Persian, of course I would. I've read other English versions, but it is Ladinsky's translations/renditions/distillations, of what must be the essence of Hafiz, that rains music in my heart and deeply stirs this soul's longing. Cheers!
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Summary: I have a new friend
Review: My sister brought home a copy of this book last week and several of the poems she read at dinner one night dinner. Our whole family laugh out loud. How can this man Hafiz be so funny and deep at the same time? My dream is to become a screen writer someday and I think now I have found my life long writing coach in this cool Persian poet. I am four years away from getting my drivers license and my sister would not let me read freely through the book. Well, I think I will have to buy my own copy.
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Summary: A Work of Spiritual Opportunism
Review: 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.
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Summary: The title is prophetic...
Review: You will find yourself buying this one (only to give it to someone you care about) again and again.
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Summary: Estatic & Healing
Review: I cannot praise this inspired work enough! Ladinsky's selection of poems and translations/rendering is superb! Already I have bought five copies as gifts for friends (& a couple of copies of his book, "The Subject Tonight is Love"). Any one in need of healing, of finding their way, will appreciate this book.
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Summary: The Gift of All Gifts
Review: I felt that this morning I was seeing THE GIFT with eyes open, for once. The title was consciously chosen. I feel that this is not a book, this is a Guru, in the very highest sense of the word.
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Summary: Touching the Divine
Review: If you want to touch the Divine, then give yourself the gift of this book. Hafiz tells the truth in his poem titled "God Just Came Near." "No one in need of love can sit with my verse for an hour and then walk away without carrying golden tools, and feeling that God just came near." Open your heart, buy this book!
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Summary: Love
Review: A true gift. In the span of a sentence, Hafiz can restore the conscious awareness of a Loving Creator. His words are sustanance for the soul.
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Summary: Magic
Review: The extraordinary wonder of this book is that someone who died 600 years ago may be the most alive person you ever meet, and someone easily capable of empowering your life as perhaps few teachers ever have. There is mega love and wisdom rising up from these fascinating poem fields.
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Summary: Love
Review: I have fallen in love with Hafiz . . . this work is so transformative and reaches so deep into my heart, all I need to do is put out my question, open the book, and find the answer so clearly and beautifully written . .
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