Why I love Hafez

Hafez : A poetic Portal to the Soul

It is difficult to introduce Hafez with the language of concepts, for the heart of Hafez does not dwell in definitions. 

Instead of asking who is Hafez,

a more fruitful question might be:

When is Hafez?

Or perhaps how can we enter the timeless moment within where Hafez eternally resides? 

For Hafez arrives not as a figure of history,

but as a presence in our moments—

a depth,

a dimension,

a current of feeling and remembrance,

a sacred belonging that awakens

whenever we surrender

to his divine guiding matrix.

This talk is not an academic seminar.

It is an invitation—

an invitation to experience Hafez

rather than to know about Hafez.

It comes from one

who feels privileged

to have walked under the light of his guidance,

to have witnessed

the psychological impact of his verses

and the healing they bestow upon the soul.

And in order to touch, however humbly,

the mystery of this experience,

I have written a poem—

a poem born from the inspiration

of a Hafez moment,

to whisper an answer

to the questions :

When is Hafez?

How do we access where Hafez dwells within?”

O Hafez!

bearer of the Qur’an within,

Tongue of the Arcane,

voice of the mystery—

you are vaster than 

form or category.

You set me upon

a pilgrimage 

towards stillness 

to release my heart 

from the tyranny of 

my mind. Here I stand,

at your door once more,

a shadow 

yearning for a ray of light

a seeker 

of that which can’t be sought

waiting to be seized 

by the sudden 

and the eternal. 

Divination with your Divan— 

an invitation to taste 

the Wine of the Divine,

in its intoxication 

I lose myself 

in the sweetness 

of not knowing.

Your words,

fresh as rose petals

bathed in morning dew—

in their fragrance

I breathe again

the freedom of nature.

The prism of your poems

turns the invisible divine light

into a spectrum of beauty—

seen, heard, and felt:

In the dance of metaphor and symbol,

to the tune of rhyme and rhythm,

clothed in the robes of paradox.

My soul remembers

how to weave

your luminous threads

into the harmony

of a Persian carpet—

unfolding beneath my feet,

making the Path

my home—

the home I never left,

only forgot I always had.

Your alchemy

turns oblivion

into remembrance,

loneliness

into divine solitude,

wounds

into remedies,

and restlessness

into a longing

for the taste

of the Wine.

Surely,

there is more

to this life

In his talk Hafez: A Poetic Portal into the Soul  on Jung Platform, Arash Golnam invites us into the soul-stirring world of Hafez. Through poetry, music, reflection, and symbolic depth, Arash guides us into the atmosphere where Hafez is alive. Not as a figure of history, but as a presence that stirs the depths of our soul. To learn more click HERE.