Lesesaal

Divan: ghazals

Hafez

The heart of Hafez's work and, by common consent, the summit of the Persian ghazal. Each poem, of seven to nine couplets on a single rhyme, links lines that stand on their own and play on double meaning (*iham*). The aloof beloved, the cupbearer, the tavern, the nightingale and the rose live alongside a constant satire of the hypocritical ascetic, the preacher and the morals inspector, and alongside lines of wisdom on transience and fate. The book opens with an Arabic line ascribed to the caliph Yazid ("O cupbearer, pass round the cup!") and its reading oscillates, never resolved, between human and divine love. It is the book of poetry most present in Iranian homes and the one consulted as an oracle.