Odes of Hafiz

About the Book

Urdu translation in verse of the selected Persian odes of Hafiz of Shiraz. Hafiz was born as Shamsuddin Mohamed in 1320 in Shiraz, Persia and died 61years later. Without doubt, he remains one of the most revered poets of all time. He does not distinguish appearance from reality and neither can we when we read him. In human beauty he sees the glory and majesty of God. For him, the bar is a place of worship, the bar keeper a teacher and the wine the spirit of Divine knowledge. And the barmaid, yes the barmaid, is a houri straight from paradise, so beautiful, so obliging. In short, he is a mystic par excellence and a man of God. When he looks for God, he finds Him everywhere, and most surprisingly in his own heart.

About the Author

Indian born translator Khalid Hameed Shaida earned medical degree from Pakistan and practiced medicine in both Canada and the United States. He has translated the great Persian masters, Khusro, Hafiz, Ghalib, and Iqbal in his mother tongue of Urdu with a number of publications and reprints to his credit in Pakistan. In English he has translated the poems of Hafiz (Hafiz, the Voice of God, and Hafiz, Drunk with God), Khusro (Khusro, the Indian Orpheus), and Ghalib (Ghalib, the Indian Beloved), and now Faiz. In the Kindle book store his "Hafiz, the Voice of God" is the top seller among the books on Hafiz. Currently he and his wife live a quiet life in Friendswood, Texas.