Episode six of the Divan e Hafez series discusses ghazal number 30

زلفت هزار دل به یکی تاره مو ببست
راه هزار چاره‌گر از چار سو ببست

Your lock of hair bound a thousand hearts with a single strand, Closed the path to a thousand healers from every land.

تا عاشقان به بوی نسیمش دهند جان
بگشود نافه‌ایُّ و دَرِ آرزو ببست

So lovers may give their lives for the scent of your breeze, You opened a knot and closed the door of desire with ease.

شیدا از آن شدم که نگارم چو ماه نو
ابرو نمود و جلوه‌گری کرد و رو ببست

Mad I became, for my beloved shone like the crescent new, Fashioned her brows, displayed her charms, and then withdrew.

ساقی به چند رنگ، می اندر پیاله ریخت
این نقش‌ها نگر که چه خوش در کدو ببست

The cupbearer poured wine in the goblet in many hues, Behold these patterns, how well they in the gourd ensue.

یا رب چه غمزه کرد صُراحی که خون خُم
با نعره‌های قُلقُلش اندر گلو ببست

Oh Lord, what glances did the flask cast that the jug’s blood, With its gurgling cries, in the throat did abruptly shroud.

مطرب چه پرده ساخت که در پردهٔ سماع
بر اهل وجد و حال، درِ های و هو ببست

What chord did the musician strike that in this cosmic dance, Closed on those enraptured and in trance, the door of chant and prance.

حافظ! هر آن که عشق نَورزید و وصل خواست
احرامِ طوفِ کعبهٔ دل بی وضو ببست

Hafez! Whoever cherished not love yet sought union’s grace, Tied the Ihram of Kaaba’s pilgrimage without ablution’s trace.


This Ghazal is filled with pure expressions of love and mystical references, to which I will allude as much as possible.
In the first verse, the poet deems each strand of the beloved’s hair capable of binding a thousand hearts and blocking the escape of a thousand wise and learned men, thus revealing the strength of the beloved’s locks, which themselves consist of thousands of strands.
The second verse hints at Hafez’s complaint that the beloved occasionally releases a breeze or fragrance that revives the souls of lovers, yet keeps the door to meeting and union closed to them. The third verse similarly conveys this meaning through a beautiful expression, likening it to the new moon that briefly appears as a thin crescent (resembling eyebrows) before setting quickly and hiding from view.
To explain the fifth verse, it should be said that wine ferments and bubbles in the jar (which Hafez calls the jar’s cry), but once fermentation is complete and the wine is poured into the flask, it becomes calm and still. Hafez beautifully expresses this idea by asking what trickery or allure the flask employed to silence the bubbling blood of the jar (fermenting wine), which was once loud and tumultuous, now quiet and resting in the flask. This meaning is reiterated even more eloquently in the following verse. In this verse, ‘curtain’ is used twice: it could mean either a musical mode or a veil, but the second ‘curtain’ refers only to a veil. Hafez marvels at what mysterious music the musician (the beloved) played or what was done in secret that those enraptured with ecstasy no longer shout or argue but are content with dance and listening. It’s as if this listening has become a veil between them and their cries (a metaphor for searching and striving for the beloved). In the previous verse, Hafez considered the jar’s bubbling cries as its striving in hope of union with the beloved, which was quieted by the flask’s glance.
In his concluding verse, Hafez suggests that if one desires union, one must cultivate love—the same love that “seemed easy at first but proved difficult later.” Otherwise, one’s efforts will be like those who attempt to circumambulate the Kaaba without ablution, which will surely not be accepted.

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