Daniel Ladinsky ~ On His Poetry, Spiritual Journey and Intimacy with Hafiz

Say it brother, O say the divine name dear sister, silently as you walk, don't die again with that holy ruby mine inside still unclaimed when you could be swinging a golden pick with each step. ~ Daniel Ladinsky, The Gift, Poems by Hafiz

Daniel Ladinsky is the greatest messenger of 14th century sufi mystic, saint and poet Hafizin this contemporary time. Through his spiritual journey he has encountered Hafiz entirely differently; it is an intimacy with Hafiz on a different dimension from where his poetry arrives. Khwaja Shamsuddin Hafiz of Shiraz (1320-1389), according to Daniel Ladinsky, is "one of the greatest spiritual friends, lovers, and guides that humankind has ever known." Persian Hafiz and American Daniel meet at a pure land beyond the scope or mere subject matter of literature, language, grammar or textual translation. Since it is on a different dimension, there are also room for misunderstanding when people try to trace the original of Hafiz. The works of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky are quite unique and those who look for word by word translation can be quite disappointed. Yet what is most astounding is the beauty, grace and love that flows through the versions of Hafiz through Daniel. The way they are received all over the world by many hearts and the way it touched those hearts, are already a Sign. Many have called the works of Hafiz by Daniel as guiding influence and healing for them. Those who are familiar with Hafiz in his original language have confessed even that they have never seen this great Persian Master more glorious in the English language. The paradox between scholars criticizing Daniel Ladinsky and those who can't help but drown in the beauty, sacredness and vitality of the version is quite an interesting one. The way Daniel has reconstructed the spiritual DNA of Hafiz can also have an interesting Sufi lesson for us all perhaps. When asked to define a Sufi, someone said that a Sufi is 'Son of the Moment' (ibnul waqt). I feel that what Daniel's version of Hafiz did and

does is that they release Hafiz in the moment for a reader. In this way, Daniel Ladinsky's work is a work of a living Sufi who, like Jesus, breathe life into the form of poetry of another time and energy, and they become alive in ours. Those who are familiar with the writings of Rumi, will know that one of his greatest work is called Diwan of Shams Tabrizi. Now scholars will say these are works of Rumi, which they are and if we were to ask Rumi, he would perhaps say, these are words that Shams, his great spiritual teacher, poured into his heart. Thats why he calls it Diwan of Shams crediting the source which is more real. Think of Hafiz version of Daniel Ladinsky like that, and all our arguments will vanish.

A Poet A Poet is someone Who can pour light into a cup, Then raise it to nourish Your beautiful parched, holy mouth. ~ Daniel Ladinsky, The Gift

If you have not read Daniel Ladinsky, you have missed out something so sweet that no one can possibly describe it to you, for you. Here is a secret why Hafiz via Daniel Ladinsky is so successful - it is purely because a saint has sanctified these works - someone who is connected in his living connection with successive luminous human beings. The grace of Masters can do wondrous things, for they are but grace of the Beloved.

On October 2013 the Sun Magazine published an excellent interview with Daniel Ladinsky titled: Something Missing in My Heart: Daniel Ladinsky On The God-Intoxicated Poetry Of Hafiz where he shared about his spiritual longing, his encounter with a living saint in India who inspired him to work on Hafiz, his relationship with his Spiritual Teacher and much more. The interview conducted by award winning journalist, Andrew Lawler, is a rare surfacing by Daniel as he's quite reclusive and rarely appears in public. I am quoting selectively here from the interview and you may get a copy of the full interview as PDF at the end of this post.

From the Introduction to the Interview: Most of Ladinskys work draws on Hafiz, a fourteenth- century court poet who lived in the Persian city of Shiraz. Little is known about Hafizs life, but his works celebrate the Divine as a dearly beloved, rather than as a remote being. His poems rich with taverns flowing with wine, sensual nocturnal moments, and sunny gardens perfumed with flowers (the word paradise is of Persian origin) were collected in a volume that is today as common in most Iranian and Afghan households as the Koran, and his tomb attracts pilgrims from

around the world. One such admirer of Hafiz was the spiritual teacher Meher Baba, whose name means compassionate father in Persian. Raised as a Zoroastrian in India at the turn of the last century, Meher Baba was influenced by both Islam and Hinduism and became a respected mystic. He began to visit the West in the 1930s and established several centers around the world to perpetuate his teachings, which focused on charitable works, abstinence from drugs, and remembrance of God. Ladinsky visited Meher Babas ashram, Meherabad, off and on for two decades beginning in the late seventies. At one point he lived there for six years, working at the free dispensary and spending time with Meher Babas inner circle. He ultimately left the intensity of that life I was feeling too much heat, he says and now lives next to the Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, when he is not at his farm in the Ozarks. His poetry and spiritual life, he says, are inseparable. More than once he told me, If it werent for Meher Baba, my books wouldnt exist. Under the guidance of one of Meher Babas close disciples in the early 1990s, Ladinsky began to work on English renderings of Hafizs poems. In 1996 he published The Subject Tonight Is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafizand I Heard God Laughing: Renderings of Hafiz. Since then he has added Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West; The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master; and A Year with Hafiz: Daily Contemplations. Last year he published The Purity of Desire, a collection of Rumi renderings.