Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille, March 8th 2017 … Persian poetry to inspire you.

!!! This post you can also find on https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com I am hosting there this weekly item !!!

Dear friends,

Welcome at a new episode of Heeding Haiku With … Recently I discovered the beauty of Persian (nowadays Iranian) poetry through an article I read. I wonder if you know how beautiful the poetry is of Persia. Maybe you know Rumi or Hafiz, both are renown Persian poets and every Iranian can recite for example the poems by Hafiz. The Iranian people lives in symbiosis with the poetry of Hafiz and they even use his poems to get answers on questions they have.

This week I love to challenge you to create a haiku inspired (or distilled) from a poem by Hafiz.

The Diamond Takes Shape

Some parrots
Have become so skilled with
The human voice
They could give a brilliant discourse
About freedom and God

And an unsighted man nearby might
Even begin applauding with
The thought:
I just heard jewels fall from a
Great saint’s mouth,
Though my Master used to say,

“The diamond takes shape slowly
With integrity’s great force,
And from
The profound courage to never relinquish love.”

Some parrots have become so skilled
With words,
The blind turn over their gold
And lives to caged
Feathers.

© Hafiz (14th century)
(From: The Gift, poetry by Hafiz. Tr. Daniel Ladinsky)

I hope I have inspired you to create your poetry, your haiku. I am looking forward to your responses.

Have fun!

When you have written your haiku, please TAG Heeding Haiku with Chèvrefeuille and Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie. Then add your link to the Mister Linky widget below.