Poetry

Poems from the Divan of Hafiz

by Gertrude Lowthian Bell

Hafiz lived in fourteenth-century Shiraz and wrote ghazals, short lyrics of wine, love and the beloved that may also be read as poems about God; Persians still open his Divan at random to find an answer to a question. Gertrude Bell, later the archaeologist and diplomat who helped to draw the borders of Iraq, published these translations in 1897, after a stay in Persia. They are still counted among the best in English.

The librarian

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Reading time

About 2 hr 20 min

Where to find it

On the Poetry shelves

Edition

Project Gutenberg, eBook #74883. In the public domain in the United States.