Eight Sufi 'Winebringer' Poems in Masnavi Form

EIGHT SUFI ‘WINEBRINGER’ POEMS IN MASNAVI FORM by Nizami, Hafiz, Zargun Khan, Fuzuli, Tahirih, Iqbal, Inayat Khan & Paul Translations & Introduction Paul Smith The Saqi-nama or ‘Book of the Winebringer’ (Cupbearer) is a genre of poetry where the poet or drinker or seeker or devotee calls upon the saqi (sometimes spelt 'saki') or winebringer or cupbearer or waiter or waitress (Spiritual Master or God) to bring wine whether in the material sense of juice from the grape or in the spiritual sense of it symbolising Truth, Love, Grace, Knowledge, Beauty. This genre was really begun by Nizami (1140-1208) in his famous ‘Layla & Majnun’ and later in his first of two ‘Books of Alexander’. It was completed & perfected in the form of the masnavi (rhyming couplets) by Persia’s greatest lyric poet Hafiz of Shiraz in the 14th century. Leading up to this famous poem by Hafiz were many poems in a number of poetic forms of the past by mainly Persian poets of the highest order who used the image of the ‘Winebringer’ usually in the spiritual sense, this is explored. CONTENTS: The Poetic Genre of the ‘Book of the Winebringer’ (Saqi-nama), Selected Bibliography, Sufis & their Art and Use of Wine in Poetry, Glossary, The Main Form in the Genre of Saqi-nama (Book of the Winebringeer). THE POETS…Nizami, Hafiz, Zargun Khan, Fuzuli, Tahirih, Iqbal, Inayat Khan and Paul. The correct rhyme-form has been kept in all translations of these beautiful, powerful, honest poems. Large Format Paperback 7” x 10” Pages 174 COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH’S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ’S ‘DIVAN’. “It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished.” Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. “Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith.” Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of many mystical works in English into Persian and knower of Hafiz’s Divan off by heart. Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi and other poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages… including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ‘Attar, Sana’i, Jahan Khatun, Ubayd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Lalla Ded, Ghalib, Rahman Baba, Makhfi, and many others, as well as his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children’s books and screenplays. www.newhumanitybooks.com