Peter Booth is coming to Salem to give a talk on the poetry of Hafiz at the Salem Athenaeum on Saturday, November 5 at 4 p.m. He is an entertaining speaker, an excellent scholar, and currently preparing a book on the subject.

From Nicola Masciandaro, professor of English at Brooklyn College in New York:

“Peter Booth received his B.A. in English Literature from Bard College and studied Persian Language and Literature at the graduate school of Harvard University (with Anne Marie Schimmel and Wheeler Thackston). In 1977-8, on a scholarship from the Shah of Iran, he studied Persian Literature at Ferdowsi University in Mashhad. He was a resident for 32 years in Avatar Meher Baba’s Home, “Meherabad” in rural India. He is currently completing a detailed study of the poetry of Hafiz of Shiraz with numerous new translations.”

تو گر خواهی که جاویدان جهان یکسر بیارایی

صبا را گو که بردارد زمانی برقع از رویت

If you would like to fill the world with beauty eternally

ask the morning breeze to lift for a moment

the veil from your face.

به هوش باش که هنگام باد  استغنا

هزار خرمن طاعت به نیم جو ننهند

Be careful for when the wind of God’s absolute

independent nature blows

a thousand harvests of obedience will not be worth

half a grain of barley.

به کام تا نرساند مرا لبش چون نای

نصیحت همه عالم به گوش من باد است

Until He takes me to His lips like a reed

all the advice of the world passes by my ear

like the wind.