TheEroticSpirit:Love,Manand
Satanin √Æfiæ’sPoetry
Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab
Yikīst turkī-u tāzī dar īn mu‘āmala Ḥāfiẓ
Ḥadith-i ‘ishq bayān kun bi-dān zabān ki tu dānī^1Ḥāfiẓ!TurkishandArabicarethesameinthisbusiness.
Describethestoryofloveinthelanguagethatyouknow.Introduction
ThecharacteristicstrengthofthepoetryofḤāfiẓ(d.791/1389)liesinhisvirtuoso
useofarichcomplexofthemesandmotifsinasinglepoemandeveninasingle
couplet.Thewayhecombinesthemesandmotifsderivingfromwine,loveand
naturepoetry,fromtheascetic,mysticandantinomiantraditions,mesmerizesany
Persianreader.Throughthisintegrationofthemes,motifsandmetaphors,Ḥāfiẓ
allowsarangeofinterpretationssuitingtheneedsofeachreader.Heisthemaster
ofcombining‘differentmodesofdiscourse’inashortpoeticunit.^2 Althoughthe
coupletsarewrittenaspartofalongercomposition,theytakeonalifeoftheirown,
asindependentunits,inthereceptionhistory.
OneofḤāfiẓ’sprimarythemesislove.Althoughthereisusuallyaprofaneand
sometimesapurelyromantic–eroticlayerofinterpretationinhispoemsonlove,
thethemeofmysticlove,whichheknitstoascetic(zuhdiyyāt),bacchic(khamriyyāt)
andantinomian(qalandariyyāt)themes,makesthispoetryprismaticorpolyfunc-
tional.Areaderunfamiliarwithmysticallorewillmisssomeofthedimensionsof
lovebeingdescribed,orfindtheworkunclear.Thischapterpresentsacloseread-
ingandcommentarytoshowhowaknowledgeofthisbackgroundcanenrichour
experienceofreadingḤāfiẓ’spoetry.Itwillindicatehowatheoryoflovecanbe
reconstructedfromtheDīvān,andshowhowheavilyḤāfiẓreliedonthecreation
mythasithadbeendevelopedbythePersianSufimysticsoverthepreceding
centuries.^3