By John Hertz: (reprinted from Vanamonde 1269) Urged by the inspiration of A.J. Arberry, Classical Persian Literature ch. 13 (1958; I recommend it), I must note Shams al-Dîn Muhammad of Shîrâz (1315-1390), known by his literary name Hâfez (Arabic, “preserver”, inter alia a title of one who has committed the Koran to memory). He left five hundred poems in the ghazal form (“spun yarn”; sounds like guzzle):
usually of between seven and twenty lines…. divided into two half-lines…. the first two half-lines rhyme, and after this the same rhyme comes at the end of each complete line, but not within the line
explains Dick Davis in his tr. Faces of Love p. lxviii (2012), who groans (p. 273; he sets pairs of half-lines in couplets; in a ghazal the poet’s name customarily appears at the end),
Translating Hafez, or Trying To
How long you’ve teased me with your tropes, Hafez,
And led me on and dashed my hopes, Hafez,
And left me like a foolish fog-bound man
Who pats and peers, and grasps and gropes, Hafez,
And thinks he’s getting somewhere till he takes
A tumble down delusion’s slopes, Hafez,
And nursing angry broken bones declares
“God damn the guide, God damn the ropes, Hafez.”
Your imperturbability is like
A really irritating pope’s, Hafez —
But there, no matter how much Dick complains
Or goes off in a sulk, or mopes, Hafez,
Tomorrow finds him shaking (just once more)
Your glittering kaleidoscopes, Hafez.
Pump, vandals, handles: Bob Dylan, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965)
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“The Pump Don’t Work, ’Cause the Vandals Took the Handles”
“You know nothing, John Snow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow“
John Hertz replies by carrier pigeon:
Delighted you liked it, John Hertz!
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