I am reading Hafiz’s Little Book of Life, poetry by Hafiz-e Shirazi. He is challenging me to become more comfortable with ambiguity. I will share his poem and some of my thoughts on his poem (sometimes with the help of experts when the concepts are too hard for me), followed by a poem and some art inspired by his poem.

Hafiz’s Poem 7:

Our fate

Was in the hands

Of some two-year-old wine

Some thoughts:

I think an equivalent today might be making life-altering decisions after drinking too much boxed wine or consuming one too many edibles. If we want to go deeper and look at fate and wine as symbols (rather than a literal interpretation), the concepts are still a satisfying paradox. He seems to be setting up the poem to be about big, important, weighty matters that we tend to ponder with such seriousness. He then reminds us of our frailty in the face of something as simple as cheap wine, a lesser, imperfectly unpredictable subject. The contrast is a bit absurd, but so are we. Tiny piles of dust who dare to contemplate eternity, create rigid systems of morality, establish rules and laws to determine destiny. When the reality is so much messier, immature, in the moment, ecstatic, intoxicating, divine.

My Poem 7:

We were never meant
to merely exist
within a structured set
of confining rules
like the law
given to Moses
on the mount.

We were meant
to fall in love
with life and each other
and God.

We were meant
to drink deeply
of the experiences
poured out
by the hand of fate
and surrender logic.

Hafiz. Hafiz’s Little Book of Life. Translated by Erfan Mojib and Gary Gach, Hampton Roads Publishing, 2023.