HAFIZ AND THE BOOK OF THE WINEBRINGER (SAQI-NAMA) Anthology of this Genre in Sufi Poetry Translations & Introduction Paul Smith The Saqi-nama or 'Book of the Winebringer' (Cupbearer) is a genre of poetry where the poet or drinker or seeker or devotee calls upon the saqi (sometimes spelt saki) or winebringer or cupbearer or waiter or waitress or spiritual master to bring wine whether in the material sense of juice from the grape or in the spiritual sense of it symbolising Truth, Love, Grace, Knowledge. This genre was really begun in a completed form of the masnavi (rhyming couplets) by Persia's greatest lyric poet Hafiz of Shiraz in the 14th century. Leading up to this famous poem by Hafiz were many poems in a number of poetic forms of the past by Arabic and Persian poets of the highest order who used the image of the 'Winebringer' usually in the spiritual sense. CONTENTS: The Poetic Genre of the 'Book of the Winebringer' (Saqi-nama), Bibliography, Sufis: Their Art and Use of Poetry, Glossary, The Main Forms in the Genre of Saqi-nama (Book of the Winebringeer). THE POETS...Rabi'a of Basra, Abu Nuwas, Rudaki, Abu Shakur, Minuchihri, Baba Kuhi, Gurgani, Ansari, Mu'izzi, Omar Khayyam, Gilani, 'Attar, Nizami, Mu'in, Zahir, Ibn al-Farid, Rumi, Sadi, 'Iraqi, Hasan Dihlavi, Obeyd Zakani, HAFIZ, Jahan Khatun, Jami, Ahli, Zargun Khan, Fuzuli, Kalim, Dara Shikoh, Sarmad, Makhfi, Bedil, Sauda, Nazir, Mir, Aatish, Ghalib, Momin, Tahirah, Shad, Iqbal, Inayat Khan, Jigar, Huma, Firaq, Josh, Paul. Large Format Paperback 7" x 10" Pages 316. COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH'S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ'S 'DIVAN'. "It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished." Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. "Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of many mystical works in English into Persian and knower of Hafiz's Divan off by heart. "I was very impressed with the beauty of these books." Dr. R.K. Barz. Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University. Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi and other poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages... including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Ubayd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Lalla Ded, Ghalib, Rahman Baba, Makhfi, and many others, as well as his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children's books and screenplays. www.newhumanitybooks.com