Friday, June 29, 2007

1336 Hafez, the CD

Friday, June 29, 2007

[Later edit - fixed the quote.]

The CD Roman gave me yesterday is "Hafiz: The Scent of Light" (he found it in a bin in a blank case, without cover or liner notes). He thought it was mid-eastern music. Bellydance.

It's not. Hafiz, or Hafez, was a fourteenth-century Sufi Persian poet. The CD is an "audio book" of translated readings from his romantic and spiritual poems, with Indian (sitar), Persian, and Arabic musical accompaniment. It's absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend it.

Hafez was the one who likened true love to "taking an iron hold on the painful swollen balls of a Divine rogue elephant, and not having the good fortune to die."

Ok, some verses aren't so beautiful.
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