OK - hands up if you know who Hafez is/was.
And extra points if you have actually read any of his stuff.
I freely confess that I had never heard of him until I started getting interested in this trip.
Iranians are very big on poetry and Hafez is major league. There are streets and squares named after several poets in most towns we have been to. And we are told that much of the traditional music we have been hearing is their poetry set to music.
Hafez is apparently the most-loved lyric poet and many of his sayings are in comon usage.
Where is this leading ?
Well, Hafez was from Shiraz and here he has the status of a combination of William Shakespeare, Bob Dylan and Elvis (Presley not Costello).
We visited his tomb yesterday. The site is several acres of beautiful landscaped gardens with pools and fountains and in the middle there is an open pavilion with a tiled dome in which sits a large alabaster sarcophagus. The place was crowded with people, many of whom go up to the sarcophagus and rest a hand on it while they murmur some words - we didn't know whether they were reciting a favourite piece or whether it was something religious. And this included people of all ages.
Traditional music using his words was playing and gave the whole place a lovely atmosphere.
It is believed that his works have the capacity for clairvoyance so people will open a book of his work at random and divine their future from the words they chance upon.
And just in case you arrive having forgotten your copy of his complete works, as we did, at the entrance gate there are several people with handfuls of bits of paper with random verses on. For a small fee they will allow the budgie sitting on their wrist to pick one out for you with its beak. And I'm not making that up.........you couldn't really.......
We enjoyed it there so much we stayed quite a long time - there was a nice cafe in one corner where we could sit for a while.
We even went back again around sunset and had an enormous 4-scoop ice cream while it got dark. They illuminate the whole place in the evening and that created a very different but equally enjoyable atmosphere.
There were still large numbers of people coming and going.
So - is Amazon going to experience an unprecented rush on books of Iranian poetry tomorrow ?
60 million Iranians can't be wrong.
And extra points if you have actually read any of his stuff.
I freely confess that I had never heard of him until I started getting interested in this trip.
Iranians are very big on poetry and Hafez is major league. There are streets and squares named after several poets in most towns we have been to. And we are told that much of the traditional music we have been hearing is their poetry set to music.
Hafez is apparently the most-loved lyric poet and many of his sayings are in comon usage.
Where is this leading ?
Well, Hafez was from Shiraz and here he has the status of a combination of William Shakespeare, Bob Dylan and Elvis (Presley not Costello).
We visited his tomb yesterday. The site is several acres of beautiful landscaped gardens with pools and fountains and in the middle there is an open pavilion with a tiled dome in which sits a large alabaster sarcophagus. The place was crowded with people, many of whom go up to the sarcophagus and rest a hand on it while they murmur some words - we didn't know whether they were reciting a favourite piece or whether it was something religious. And this included people of all ages.
Traditional music using his words was playing and gave the whole place a lovely atmosphere.
It is believed that his works have the capacity for clairvoyance so people will open a book of his work at random and divine their future from the words they chance upon.
And just in case you arrive having forgotten your copy of his complete works, as we did, at the entrance gate there are several people with handfuls of bits of paper with random verses on. For a small fee they will allow the budgie sitting on their wrist to pick one out for you with its beak. And I'm not making that up.........you couldn't really.......
We enjoyed it there so much we stayed quite a long time - there was a nice cafe in one corner where we could sit for a while.
We even went back again around sunset and had an enormous 4-scoop ice cream while it got dark. They illuminate the whole place in the evening and that created a very different but equally enjoyable atmosphere.
There were still large numbers of people coming and going.
So - is Amazon going to experience an unprecented rush on books of Iranian poetry tomorrow ?
60 million Iranians can't be wrong.
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