THE MASTER, THE MUSE & THE POET An Autobiography in Poetry by... Paul Smith Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1945, Paul Smith began composing poems in the ancient Persian form of the ghazal at the age of 6 on his way to school. Here are most of his poems composed over the past 53 years... free-form, rhyming, ruba'is, ghazals, masnavis etc. Here are poems composed at home or travelling in the East and the U.S.A while giving readings of his poetry and translations. Here are poems of a personal nature, about human love & grief, about evolution and God and man and the environment and the past, present and future. Many of the poems were composed while translating the works of Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, Kabir, Obeyd Zakani, Jahan Khutan, Meher Baba (Huma) and many others and while writing novels, screenplays, children's books and plays where he continued to tell the inner and outer story of his passage through this mysterious and wonderful and sometimes very painful life. 726 pages. 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. If he comes to Iran I will kiss the fingertips that wrote such a masterpiece inspired by the Creator of all." Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. "Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator 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. "Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz." Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books author). Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of over 80 books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages, including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies and a dozen screenplays.