Persian Poets string verses together as though they were pearls. The Great Sufi poet, Hafez makes this poignant in the following verses:

Now Hafiz, sing it sweetly to us;
For on your verse the sky has strewn
Pearls from the necklet of the Pleiades.

You've spoken your ode, having strung your pearls,
Now Hafiz, sing it sweetly to us;
For on your verse the sky has strewn
Pearls from the necklet of the Pleiades.

~ Haleh Pourafzal and Roger Montgomery,

'The Spiritual Wisdom of Hafez',

Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont, 1998

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The Search

Go search for Jam's Cup, cried my heart so vain,

as though from some stranger its truth I'd obtain.

The pearl peering out from its sea shaped shell

sought vision from souls lost in ocean's domain.

This to my Elder last night I revealed,

praying an answer to the riddle I'd gain.

Lighthearted he listened, the wine cup raised,

revealing a mirror where worlds wax and wane.

When did wisdom give such a cup? I inquired.

On the day she shaped sky's blue dome, he said sane.

She whose heart holds secrets like buds sealed tight

inscribed images deep in memory's refrain.

Blind to this truth we stroll with God through life,

madly shouting, O God, come to me, soothe my pain.

Our minds raise up worship over clear sight

such as Moses' decree that from idols abstain.

Elder explained crime of friend who was hanged

was speaking such secrets in language too plain.

Truth is, if Gabriel would open our eyes,

Christ's vision can be seen by others again.

O Elder, why does our search never cease?

Jam's Cup dear Hafez, is your link to friend's chain.

~ Haleh Pourafzal and Roger Montgomery,

'The Spiritual Wisdom of Hafez',

Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont, 1998

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For years my heart was in search of the Grail

What was inside me, it searched for, on the trail

That pearl that transcends time and place

Sought of divers whom oceans sail

My quest to the Magi my path trace

One glance solved the riddles that I braille

Found him wine in hand and happy face

In the mirror of his cup would watch a hundred detail

I asked, "when did God give you this Holy Grail?"

Said, "on the day He hammered the world’s first nail!"

Even the unbeliever had the support of God

Though he could not see, God’s name would always hail.

All the tricks of the mind would make God seem like fraud

Yet the Golden Calf beside Moses’ rod would just pale.

And the one put on the cross by his race

His crime, secrets of God would unveil

Anyone who is touched by God’s grace

Can do what Christ did, without fail.

And what of this curly lock that’s my jail

Said this is for Hafiz to tell his tale.

~Shahriar Shahriari

http://www.hafizonlove.com/

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Pearls of Wisdom

Drunken, pearls of wisdom unveil

In hiding secrets, the selfless fail

Hafiz, drunken, songs will compose

From its melody Venus' song flows

O singer, with the sound of the stream

Of that majestic song muse and dream

Till I make my work joy and ecstasy

I will dance and play with robe of piety

Given a crown and throne by his fate

The fruit of the kingly tree of this estate

Ruler of the land, and Lord of the time

The grand and fortunate King of the clime

He is the greatness vested in the Throne

comfort of bird and fish from Him alone

For the blessed, he is light of the eyes

Yet he is the gift of the soul of the wise

Behold, O, auspicious bird

The happy inspiration to be heard

The world has no pearls in its shells like Thee

Fereydoon and Jamshid had no heirs like Thee

~Shahriar Shahriari

http://www.hafizonlove.com/

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A Mad Heart

Long years my heart had made request

Of me, a stranger, hopefully

(Not knowing that itself possessed

The treasure that it sought of me),

That Jamshid's chalice I should win

And it would see the world therein.

That is a pearl by far too rare

To be contained within the shell

Of time and space; lost vagrants there

Upon the ocean's margin, well

We know it is in vain surmise

That we should hold so great a prize.

~Arthur J. Arberry,

'Fifty Poems of Hafiz', Curzon Press, Richmond, 1993, # 15

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Raining Pearls

I want to die near you. O faithless healer,

visit the sick one again, I am waiting.

I have cried a hundred streams across my breast

hoping to water the seed of kindness in your heart.

My spilled blood freed me from the pain of love.

I am grateful to the dagger of your glance.

Be kind, grant me an audience, so that with burning heart

my eyes can constantly rain pearls at your feet.

Hafiz, wine and the beloved and the rend's way are not for you,

but you pursue them all and I overlook it.

~Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr.  - 'The Green Sea of Heaven'

Pub.  White Cloud Press

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If need be, I'll go all the way to Babylon

To learn enough sorcery to make You mine.

Rather, through an act of grace, let me come to You with my heart on fire

And pearls raining from my eyes to bathe Your feet.

Over my chest a hundred streams are flooding from these eyes

Wanting to sow just one loveseed in the bed of Your garden soil.

By spilling my blood You've freed me from separations's grief. And for this wound Your knife-sharp glance has opened in my ribs, I thank You!

O Great Doctor, all I want is to die at Your feet.

I've been sitting in this Waiting Room of life, now, too long.

~Thomas Rain Crowe - 'In Wineseller's Street'. Pub.  Ibex. #36

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Pearl of Great Price

The beauty of this poem is beyond words.

Do you need a guide to experience the heat of the sun?

Blessed is the brush of the painter who paints

Such beautiful pictures for his virgin bride.

Look at this beauty. There is no reason for what you see.

Experience its grace. Even in nature there is nothing so fine.

Either this poem is a miracle, or some sort of magic trick,

Guided either by Gabriel or the Invisible Voice, inside.

No one, not even Hafez, can describe, with words, The Great Mystery.

No one knows in which shell the priceless pearl does hide

~Thomas Rain Crowe - In Wineseller's Street, Pub. Ibex # 71

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Peeless Pearl

Lord, that bright candle lights the night of whose dwelling?

Our soul burns while asking this: "That is whose darling?"

That one overturns my heart and my faith and my religion.

That's whose bedmate, I want to know; with whom is living?

0 Lord, one so regal, face like the moon, forehead of Venus,

Is whose peerless pearl and whose jewel beyond comparing?

~Smith, P. (1986). Divan of Hafiz.  Melbourne: New Humanity Books.

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The benisons of Heaven are won by purity alone:
 Else would not pearl and coral spring from every clod and stone?

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"Oft have I said, I say it once more,
I, a wanderer, do not stray from myself.
I am a kind of parrot; the mirror is holden to me;
What the Eternal says, I stammering say again.
Give me what you will; I eat thistles as roses,
And according to my food I grow and I give.

Scorn me not, but know I have the pearl,

And am only seeking one to receive it."

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