So where do all these fake Hafez quotes come from? Hafez has something to say, and to sing, to the whole world, but bypassing these tens of millions who have kept Hafez in their heart as Hafez kept the Quran in his heart is tantamount to erasure and appropriation. And many mystics, including the 20th-century Sufi master Pir Vilayat, would cast his powerful glance at his students, stating that he would long for them to be able to see themselves and their own worth as he sees them. By creating an account, you agree to our Privacy Policy. That is good stuff. Hafez was his honorific because he had memorised the whole of the Quran. They are … Hafez-ish? Please select your budget range:(check all that apply), Please select your budget range: He shows his own piety while his poetry is filled with references to intoxication and wine that may be literal or may be symbolic. Please provide details about your organization, the type of event, or the talent you would like to secure, and an agent will be in touch shortly. Part of what is going on here is what we also see, to a lesser extent, with Rumi: the voice and genius of the Persian speaking, Muslim, mystical, sensual sage of Shiraz are usurped and erased, and taken over by a white American with no connection to Hafez’s Islam or Persian tradition. The poems are indeed beautiful. His work is based on conveying and being "faithful to the living spirit" of Hafiz, Rumi, and other mystic poets. How did this come to be? Check availability and how much does it cost to book a celebrity speaker or entertainer like Daniel Ladinsky for live and virtual events. Far from merely being content to criticise those who appropriate Muslim sages and erase Muslims’ own presence in their legacy, it is also up to us to reimagine Islam where figures like Rumi and Hafez are central voices. [15] Some hail Ladinsky's contemporary work for creating an immediate access to the spirit and intention of Hafiz' verse. (check all that apply). Oh, and one last thing: It is Haaaaafez, not Hafeeeeez. You are likely to find them on the shelves of your local bookstore under the “Sufism” section, alongside books of Rumi, Khalil Gibran, Idries Shah, etc. [3] In 2017 Ladinsky published Darling, I Love You Poems from the Hearts of Our Glorious Mutts, featuring his original haiku, illustrated by Patrick McDonnell, creator of the internationally syndicated MUTTS comic strip. His poetry, alongside that of Rumi and Saadi, are main staples of vocalists in Iran to this day, including beautiful covers by leading maestros like Shahram Nazeri and Mohammadreza Shajarian. There are larger issues of language, community, and power involved here. It is perhaps a futile exercise to impose one definitive meaning on Hafez. And in the great pantheon of Persian poetry where Hafez, Rumi, Saadi, ‘Attar, Nezami, and Ferdowsi might be the immortals, there is perhaps none whose mastery of the Persian language is as refined as that of Hafez. This is erasure and spiritual colonialism. Which is great for Ladinsky, but we are missing the chance to hear from the actual, real Hafez. Booking agency for Daniel Ladinsky. Some of the statements that Ladinsky attributes to Hafez are, in fact, mystical truths that we hear from many different mystics. The mystics see it as a sign of their own yearning, and so do the wine-drinkers, and the anti-religious types. Fake Hafez. They are beautiful poetry in English, and do contain some profound wisdom. You like that one from Hafez? Unable to find fulfillment, he visited the Meher Baba Center in South Carolina again. [1][2], He has written four works which he claims are based on poetry of 14th-century Persian Sufi poet Hafiz: I Heard God Laughing (1996), The Subject Tonight Is Love (1996) The Gift (1999), and A Year With Hafiz: Daily Contemplations, (2011) as well as an anthology, Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West (2002), and The Purity of Desire: 100 Poems of Rumi (2012). Fear is the cheapest room in the house.I would like to see you living in better conditions. When I was 21 a friend introduced me to a volume of poems by the 14th-century Persian poet Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky. So there is something sinister about keeping Muslims out of our borders while stealing their crown jewels and appropriating them not by translating them but simply as decor for poetry that bears no relationship to the original. Let us take a look at some of these quotes attributed to Hafez: Even after all this time,the sun never says to the earth,‘you owe me.’Look what happens with a love like that!It lights up the whole sky. And that is a shame. Since the release of his first publication I Heard God Laughing,[6] Ladinsky's books have been translated into German, Hebrew, Turkish, Indonesian, and Slovene languages and maintain international best-selling status in the religious and inspirational poetry genre. The BBC invited Ladinsky to write on Hafiz. Does it really matter?” I think it matters a great deal. [18] Turkish novelist Elif Shafak licensed Ladinsky's Rumi work for reprint in her titles. A listing or profile on this website does not imply an agency affiliation or endorsement by the talent. Our extensive relationships and reputation in the industry allow us to book virtually any speaker or celebrity in the world. There is one last element: It is indeed an act of violence to take the Islam out of Rumi and Hafez, as Ladinsky has done. [3] Eventually, he published I Heard God Laughing in 1996. Daniel Ladinsky is the internationally acclaimed poet known for his inspired, contemporary renderings of works by Hafiz, Rumi, St. Francis of Assisi, and poet-saints East and West. GERNE! Over a twenty-year period, beginning in 1978, he spent extensive time in a spiritual community at Meherabad, in western India, where he worked in a rural clinic free to the poor, and lived with the intimate disciples and family of Meher Baba. Though Ladinsky's first visit lasted only two weeks, it started a process which continued with regular visits for the next two decades, and Jessawala became his spiritual teacher. Please provide the email address you used to create for your account. Ladinsky, Daniel (1996 & 2006) p. [24][25], In April 2009, the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, recited from Ladinsky's book at a Nowruz celebration in Toronto, but was later informed there was no corresponding Persian original for the poems. Hafez’s poetry is considered the very epitome of Persian in the Ghazal tradition. Powerful. There he met Meher Baba's sister Mani Irani, and his close disciple, Eruch Jessawala. This is a matter of power, privilege and erasure. [4] Since he did not know the Persian language, he based his "renderings" on an 1891 English translation of The Divan of Hafez by Henry Wilberforce-Clarke. And the next one you were going to ask about? Ladinsky himself admitted that they are not “translations”, or “accurate”, and in fact denied having any knowledge of Persian in his 1996 best-selling book, I Heard God Laughing. Patrick McDonnell is the venerated author, artist, and creator of the beloved MUTTS comic strip. In the introduction to a recent book on Hafez, I said that Rumi (whose poetic output is in the tens of thousands) comes at you like you an ocean, pulling you in until you surrender to his mystical wave and are washed back to the ocean. Some time later, as Ladinsky recounted in an interview, intending to drive towards the Andes mountain, he took a detour of a thousand miles, and stopped the Meher Baba Center at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Also Fake Hafez. It is another thing to take Rumi and Hafez out of Islam. And they do contain mystical insights. So, pray tell, how is someone who admits that they do not know the language going to be translating the language? It is not simply a matter of a translation dispute, nor of alternate models of translations. This is erasure and spiritual colonialism [...] not simply a matter of a translation dispute, nor of alternate models of translations. This website is a resource for event professionals and strives to provide the most comprehensive catalog of thought leaders and industry experts to consider for speaking engagements. [26], In June 2020, Professor Omid Safi commented, "Part of what is going on here is what we also see, to a lesser extent, with Rumi: the voice and genius of the Persian speaking, Muslim, mystical, sensual sage of Shiraz are usurped and erased, and taken over by a white American with no connection to Hafez's Islam or Persian tradition. How can it be that about 99.9 percent of the quotes and poems attributed to one the most popular and influential of all the Persian poets and Muslim sages ever, one who is seen as a member of the pantheon of “universal” spirituality on the internet are … fake? Persians take poetry seriously. This is the time of the year where every day I get a handful of requests to track down the original, authentic versions of some famed Muslim poet, usually Hafez or Rumi. [4], Ladinsky, Daniel (1996 & 2006) p.xi., "I Heard God Laughing. And yet he is deliciously impossible to pin down. Made up. [4], He worked for a few years at a carpentry job, and thereafter joined his father's investment company. Scholars and critics point out that Ladinsky's poems are originals, and not translations or interpretations of Hafez. A great scholar of Persian and Urdu literature, Christopher Shackle, describes Ladinsky’s output as “not so much a paraphrase as a parody of the wondrously wrought style of the greatest master of Persian art-poetry.” Another critic, Murat Nemet-Nejat, described Ladinsky’s poems as what they are: original poems of Ladinsky masquerading as a “translation.”. Hafez’s worldview is inseparable from the world of Medieval Islam, the genre of Persian love poetry, and more. Review of: The Gift: Poems from Hafiz the great Sufi Master, Supposed Hafiz poem recited by McGuinty turns out to be fake, Fake Hafez: How a supreme Persian poet of love was erased, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daniel_Ladinsky&oldid=985107095, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 October 2020, at 00:28. His own name is “he who has committed the Quran to heart”, yet he loathes religious hypocrisy. We respect the different needs of our clients and offer unbiased recommendations for the best possible keynote speakers, celebrities, and entertainers. Omid Safi is the Director of the Duke Islamic Studies Center. Yet if you love a tradition, you have to speak the truth: Ladinsky’s translations have no earthly connection to what the historical Hafez of Shiraz, the 14th-century Persian sage, ever said. Which is a shame, because Hafez’s poetry deserves to be read worldwide alongside Shakespeare and Toni Morrison, Tagore and Whitman, Pablo Neruda and the real Rumi, Tao Te Ching and the Gita, Mahmoud Darwish, and the like. [16][17] Ladinsky authored a short essay in the form of an Amazon.com review, entitled My Portrait of Hafiz, that offers a description of the process and background of his work. [19][20][21][22] Christopher Shackle describes The Gift as "not so much a paraphrase as a parody of the wondrously wrought style of the greatest master of Persian art-poetry" and Aria Fanil describes his contribution thusly "Ladinsky does not know Persian while his poems bear little or no resemblance to what Hafez has composed" [23][22], Reviewer Murat Nemet-Nejat contacted Ladinsky and asked him for one or two translated gazels of Hafiz.
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