The Rubaiyat of Hafiz

Every flower its beauty bestows, Your lips the dearest gems dispose, May your lips nurture our souls, With the wine that every spirit knows. ?From the Rubaiyat of Hafiz Better known by his nom de plume, Hafiz, Khwaja Shamsuddin Mohammad (1319-1389) is the most popular of the Persian poets; he acquired his surname from memorizing the Koran at an early age. A teacher of the Koran who associated with mystics, his lyrical poetry is acclaimed as the finest ever written in the Persian language. Among his works are the first-known examples of literary styles?the long rhyming poem, the couplet, and the rubaiyat, or the epic poem told in quatrains?that survive to this day. Contemporary Muslim critics translate his passionate verse as profound and lyrical in nature, while critics in the West are inclined to interpret his poems as challenging invectives. Hafiz influenced and was translated by, among others, Goethe and Emerson; literary scholars believe that Goethe's Westöstlicher Diwan (1819) was inspired by Hafiz. The poet is buried in a splendid tomb near Shiraz, Iran.