Hafez Poems
A collection of select Hafez famous poems that were written by Hafez or written about the poet by other famous poets. PoetrySoup is a comprehensive educational resource of the greatest poems and poets on history.
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by
Hafez
What madness ’twas, I know not, that thus enchanted me;
What wine, nor who the bringer, nor wherefore enter’d he.
—Lament no more, O full heart, thy love so close confin’d!
O rosebud, ope thy glory, thy beauty nought shall bind!
Behold the flower-fill’d meadows; thou too, O wistful Dear,
Take in thine hand the goblet, & lend to me thine ear!
Lo, for our wintry...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
Wheresoever beauty flies,
Follow her on eager wings
Beauteous wild imaginings.
Wheresoever she may tread,
Lovely vivid flowers arise,
Springing swift as thoughts unsaid.
Living beauty, more than wise,
Fair art thou to living eyes,
Though less fair than is the dead
Myrtle-wreath that more we prize;
Relic of the one dear head
That for each it garlanded.
...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
Wend I, wander I, past all worlds that be;
Ever have I wander’d or e’er the earth was made;
Urg’d like the álien áir o’er land & sea,
Sleepless as sunlight, joyless as its shade.
Not on your earth travel I; sáy not to mé
‘Cease awhile thy wandering, Ó tir’d day!’
Say not, ‘O pilgrim, rest thee; comfort thee’:
Not hére is my journey’s end, Indus...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
Eyes that o’er the landscape fly,
Over dale & wood & stream
To the cloud-realms of the sky;
Eyes that wander still & dream,
Hopes that ever forward press
Seeking lovelier loveliness;
All the world is yours to roam
—Searching eye & swiftling thought—
Nowhere can ye make your home;
Not where peace so vainly sought
Bower’d in the valley lies,
Nor content’s small villages;
Nor can pleasure’s garish dress
Tempt you to...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
Fair is the leisure of life’s garden-ground:
Pleasant is friendship’s voice & mirth’s soft sound.
Sweet are the perfumed flowers; yea, yea, what bliss
Sootheth like hope’s fresh scent of loveliness?
Lovely, O nightingale, is thy lament;
Ever to listening love thy plaint is dear;
In the fond thought of love thy life is spent.
Though in this world joy’s goal is but a name,
Fair is thy...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
When sunlight faileth,
& day’s glow is gone;
When chill mist traileth
Where warm splendour shone;
When summer’s pleasure
Dieth,—dieth too
The transient treasure
That with life up-grew
& none may herit,
Where then wilt thou turn,
O vagrant spirit,
That no home didst earn;
When none replieth
Of thy friends so true,
When sweet Joy crieth
‘Adieu, love, adieu!’...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
In love’s great ocean, whose calm-shelter’d shore
Must he for ever leave, whose soul is bound
On farthest quest, life’s wonders to explore—
That mightiest flood, all-whelming, torment-toss’d,
Wherein must ev’ry lover’s self be lost
Ere the Belovéd’s lovelier self be found—
Think not, O searcher, in that sea to find
Food for thine earth-born strength & lustful show,
Nor glorious pearl to deck thy worldly mind,
Nor isle...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
Our toil is He, & eke our journey’s end;
Our life-long ailment & our remedy,
Our foeman & our ever-pitying friend;
Who is more vanquishing than victory,
Fairer than beauty, more belov’d than life;
This is he who our peace is & our strife.
Our strenuous earth is He & eke our Heaven,
The crown of conquest & the armour riven,
The strength, the struggle, yea, the failing...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
Since neither man’s proud pomp & kingly name
Endureth, nor his monumental throne,
Nor honour’d shrine, nor pinnacle of fame;
Since borne in agony to life he came
& in pain too he passeth, one by one
His joys desert him, friendless & alone,
Yea since all lov’d delights their cycles range,
All to their parent elements return,
Air to air, dust to dust,—when Thy Life’s breath,
The fire...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
My heart the chamber of His musing is,
Mine eye the mirror of His beauty’s face,
My hand the servant of His purposes.
I, who to neither wealth nor worldly place
Incline, nor to religion’s promised ease,
Bend low beneath the burden of His grace.
Since all I have is of His bounty given,
So is my poor pride but in His proud name,
His humble service is...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
Play thou on men as on a hárp’s stríng:
Though of themselves they lifeless are
In them thy spirit’s music shall ring.
Breathe thou in them as through a reed
Thy soul’s strong message, through them declare
To the dead world thy living need.
They are to thee as the senseless words
That embody thought’s full-felt commands;
Thy passive tools, obedient hands
To serve thy purpose, thy trusty swords:
They...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
When the strong climber his last mountain-crest
Attaineth, & the point for which he strove
Is reached, & his desire made manifest,
& seating him the topmost heights above
He gazeth on each aspect leisurely,
Considering the path by which he clomb
& which so many attempted, & how he
The first of all his race had strength to come
Unto that eminence, & how this throne
Shall men...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
O what availeth thee thy melting mood,
Thine ecstasy
When once again thy thralldoms o’er thee brood:
& what doth profit thee thy courage high,
& strength so fain;
So soon agen thy coward heart shall fly?
For more & stronger strife our strength shall strain,
Though hope’s best good
Be but this hope: to strive, & strive again.
...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
She hath not beauty, that ill-fortun’d gem
Wherewith may women dazzle men’s meek eyes
Ere they enslave, un-man & slaughter them.
Nor doth she vaunt afar her heart’s hid prize,
Nor with wide-lavish’d scent of hope allure
Ere men behold her, nor with rich disguise.
Nor hath she wit, that sword wherewith to smart
Delicate souls, with flashing stroke unsure
Of sharp misprise, wounding some gentle heart.
Yet not...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
All things born to break
In meek sacrifice
For another’s sake,
All man’s striving vain,
Lavish’d as the price
Of the heart’s hid pain—
Long, O spirit-bird,
Of thy lonely fear
Hast thou sung unheard
In hope’s moon-lit wood,
While no creature near
Knew nor understood.
...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
I said, ‘O heavenly Leader, O truth’s day,
Guide thou this wanderer’. He said, ‘In quest
Of his own pleasure did thy wand’rer stray’.
I pleaded, ‘Bide with me’. He answer’d, ‘Nay,
Unmeet were thy cold couch & cheerless rest
For me, soft-nurtur’d: vain is thy request.
The royal-born, how hardly may endure
After pomp’s luxury & silk array,
Thy mean provisioning, thy dwelling poor’.
Again I prayed, ‘O...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
When thou art gone, & when are gone all those
That knew thee & that loved thy living grace,
Merged in the formless flood whence all arose,
When thou hast passed, & of thy life no trace
Remaineth, nor remembrancer to say
‘Such was he, such his form, his voice, his face’,
In that new time shall rise, untouched by thee,
The eddying circles still, & pass...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
Come let us drink & deeply drown
In Heav’n’s pure wine our sorrowing!
Fling ye earth’s faded garlands down,
Scatter away life’s flowering!
Though sorrow’s myriad armies strive
To subjugate & slay us, we,
O proud cup-bearer, will contrive
To overcome their tyranny.
O earth’s sad lover, drink & throw
Unto high heaven thy misery:
So shall perchance bright beauty know
Thy longing need & bend to thee.
Not in this life’s...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
Beauty is a waving tree,
Beauty is a flower,
Beauty is a grassy lea
& a shady bower,
Beauty is the verdant Spring
In our hearts awakening.
Beauty is a summer sun
Warming all the land,
Whose full bounty doth o’errun
More than our demand;
Spreadeth Beauty her kind feast
Lavishly for man & beast.
Autumn’s quiet hast thou too,
Beauty, who canst feed
Every craving, known or new
Of the spirit’s need,
Laying up a...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
I said, ‘Thou knowest, O all-knowing Friend,
My trouble for thee’. He said ‘Speak not so:
Thy sorrow came; thy sorrow too shall go.’
I said, ‘O light of Truth, when wilt thou spend
Thy radiance?’ Answer heard I, ‘It may be
This will not alway be denied to thee.’
I said, ‘O Merciful, when wilt to me
Show mercy?’ He replied ‘Till that time is
Endure thou...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
Tell me not, mournful Preacher, that to prize
Beauty of flower or song or mistress fair,
Is to forgo the sweets of Paradise.
Say not, ‘Life’s pleasance is a deathly snare:
Shun it, so would’st thou save thy soul alive;
Blind thee, & in drear temple pray & strive’.
Know thou, all gladness is God’s house of grace;
All loveliness is thy Belovéd’s face;
All beauteous earth is...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
When sorrow hath outsoar’d our nature’s clime,
Leaving it far remote &, like a strong
Eagle lone brooding on her peak sublime,
Graspeth in solitude her towering wrong;
& no more hankereth for petty prey
Nor bleeding victim wherewithal to still
Her hunger of desolate passion, but thus aye
Sitteth, devour’d by her own vital ill,
Motionless, nerveless, where for her no sound
Of life is, only the wind’s...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
When sunlight faileth,
& day’s glow is gone;
When chill mist traileth
Where warm splendour shone;
When summer’s pleasure
Dieth,—dieth too
The transient treasure
That with life up-grew
& none may herit,
Where then wilt thou turn,
O vagrant spirit,
That no home didst earn;
When none replieth
Of thy friends so true,
When sweet Joy crieth
‘Adieu, love, adieu!’
...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
I called to fading day
As o’er the hill she flew,
‘Whither, glad light, away?
Take me, O take me too!’
She said, ‘O wingless one,
Thou hast thy memoried sun’.
I said to the droop’d rose
Awhile that was so fair,
‘Why dost so swiftly lose,
Sweet grace, thy blooming air?’
She said, ‘This is my doom;
Cherish thou beauty’s tomb’.
I cried to Joy as late
I stood, bidding farewell,
‘Must this...Read more of this...
by
Hafez
I called to fading day
As o’er the hill she flew,
‘Whither, glad light, away?
Take me, O take me too!’
She said, ‘O wingless one,
Thou hast thy memoried sun’.
I said to the droop’d rose
Awhile that was so fair,
‘Why dost so swiftly lose,
Sweet grace, thy blooming air?’
She said, ‘This is my doom;
Cherish thou beauty’s tomb’.
I cried to Joy as late
I stood, bidding farewell,
‘Must this...Read more of this...