A Mystical Reading of Ḥāfiẓ’s Translation by Robert Bly and Leonard Lewisohn

Abstract

Robert Bly and Leonard Lewisohn are among the latest translators of Ḥāfiẓ who have selectively translated thirty ghazals of Ḥāfiẓ into English. A close investigation of their translation reveals how they have manipulated the original texts to a great extent which results in having merely a mystical interpretation of Ḥāfiẓ’s multi-layered poems. However, due to the literary form of Ḥāfiẓ’s poetry which is ghazal, it can be in praise of different issues such as nature, youth, beloved, loveliness, etc.; in Bly and Lewisohn’s translation, most of them have been ascribed to divinity. In other words, by means of translation, they have rendered their own worldview along with their personal reading of Ḥāfiẓ’s poetry. The authors argue that Bly and Lewisohn’s translation renders a mystical reading of Ḥāfiẓ’s poetry and presents him as a moral preacher whose poetry is saturated with mysticism and Sufism. Being highly against the American society’s materialism, by introducing Ḥāfiẓ as a mystic and insisting on mystical and spiritual interpretation of his poetry they intend to survive their society from corruption and cater to the moral and spiritual needs of the target culture. Since American literature compared to Persian literature, lacks some repertoire related to mysticism thus Lewisohn and Bly, by means of translation try to provide their culture with a sort of nourishment in order to contribute to the amendment of the society.