Can you please give me your interpretation and opinion of this poem?
Here is a poem that I would like to hear your opinion or interpretation on : It is from Hafiz.
“I have learned so much from God
That I can no longer call myself
a Christian,
a Hindu,
a Muslim,
a Buddhist,
a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of itself with me that I can no longer call myself
a man,
a woman,
an angel,
or even pure soul.
Love has befriended me so completely
It has turned to ash and freed me
of every concept and image
my mind has ever known.”
-Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky in the book “The Gift”
What comes to your mind when you read this poem? What images comes to your head? Did you like the poem? Why or why not? What is your interpretation of it, or what do you think the poet was trying to convey? As much detail would be great.
Thanks for your opinions everybody :)
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8 Answers
I am not very impressed by it. I don’t think it is a translation, I think it is an original poem by Daniel Ladinsky and not a particularly good one.
I’m getting a distinct whiff of pretentious crap.
This reviewer speaks my thoughts on Ladinsky’s ‘poetry’ ...
Dan Ladinsky’s The Gift: Poems from Hafiz the great Sufi Master is perhaps the most inexcusably excruciating book bearing the name “translation” I have ever had the displeasure to read. For absurd reasons, it is still widely popular and seen as successful, despite a decade’s worth of hindsight since its first printing in 1999. So let me do my part to call this book what it really is: an awfully-written, narcissistic, colossally unintelligent act of charlatanry which derives its success largely from exploiting (and grossly perpetuating) some of the most shameful traits of the American public: ignorance of Islam and Islamic languages, unbridled consumerism, poor literary sensibility, stereotypes of “The East” and reviewers’ reticence to say anything negative.
You can read the rest of the review here
I liked it but I guess being pure loving spirit is hard to comprehend for some.
I guess you can take it two ways. You can try to read all kinds of stuff into it and it’s pretentious. Or you can take it simply and pure, and it’s actually an amazing message. I don’t know the poet or his style. If you just take the simple message and spread it around the world it would make life so much simpler for everyone. The simple message I get from this is we’re all on the planet for our ride, how different are we really in our hearts and souls? I don’t judge for others, that’s just my take.
I love the poem.
I’m envious of the writer.
I wish that God would teach me something beautiful.
Like truth.
I have never seen pure truth.
Oh how I thirst for it.
I’m sure that I would recognize truth if it should appear.
Truth is sweet and fresh and beautiful.
I think that if you can find pure truth.
Then you will find God.
I am so bored by poetry to begin with. Maybe I am just dense. When I read this I think “Ok, cool, you don’t have to call yourself a Hindu/Christian/Buddhist whatever anymore….too bad you were silly enough to do so to begin with, I guess? Love? Love is great? Of course, but it doesn’t completely change my views on everything in the known universe, be it fact, or opinion, or perception. Blah.”
I’d like to think this poem describes humans fully evolved. We can live as one hive mind to a degree.
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