Z dívánu Háfize Díl I. – Chvádže Šamsuddín Muhammad Háfiz (2024)

If there is something in the Muslim world that constantly provokes the anger and hatred of Sunni religious fanatics, it is the works of poets, which are often more interesting, comprehensible, and human than the sacred book of Islam – the Quran – for many ordinary Muslims. And this is precisely the fate and destiny of the collection of poems by the Persian Muslim poet Khwāja Shamsuddīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ (commonly known as Hafez), who was born around 1320 AD in the Iranian city of Shiraz and died in the same city in 1389. This Iranian poet achieved such outstanding poetic artistry that even in today's Islamic Republic, he enjoys immense popularity and is even honored with a dedicated day each year – October 12. After more than a hundred years, we are once again publishing translations of Hafez's poems into Czech, carried out by the excellent Czech expert on the Muslim world Jaromír Břetislav Košut and the leading Czech poet of his time, Jaroslav Vrchlický, with the assistance of another prominent expert on Islam, Rudolf Dvořák. ***** But why did I write that his work provokes hatred among Sunni religious fanatics? Because there are many interpretations of what Islam is, and for example, Shia Islam is, in certain respects...