“O Nightingales” (Ay Bulbulán)

Introduction What follows is a provisional translation of a Persian poem by Bahá’u’lláh, “Ay Bulbulán” or “O Nightingales,” in which He describes His advent through the various classical motifs of Persian literature. As scholar Julio Savi notes, this poem is attributed to the period when Bahá’u’lláh was residing in Iraqi Kurdistan. Although Juan Cole had […]

Háfiz, Succor now in none I see

The following is my translation of a famous ghazal by Hafiz, one which, despite being well-beloved by readers of his original Persian, is not rendered into English nearly so often as his poems that concern love or allow mystical interpretation. Yet is it is a poem that is quintessentially Hafiz: melancholic, enigmatic, replete with allusions both literary and cultural, and poignant in the power of its expression.