The Four Last Great Sufi Master Poets: Selected Poems

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THE FOUR LAST GREAT SUFI MASTER POETS

Shah Latif, Nazir Akbarabadi, Ghalib,& Iqbal

***SELECTED POEMS***

Translation & Introduction Paul Smith

The great Sufi Master Poets of the Final Age were also straightforward and inspiring in the poetic forms of the ghazal, ruba’i, qasida and masnavi and others in expressing their love for the Divine Beloved and in their contempt for this world and its illusions and explaining the spiritual path. Here are many beautiful, powerful poems by them in the correct form and meaning and biographies about them. Shah Abdul Latif was a Sufi Perfect Master and is considered by many to be the greatest poet of the Sindhi language. He composed dohas extending the form to five or six couplets. Nazir Akbarabadi is an Indian poet known as the ‘Father of Nazm’, who wrote mainly Urdu ghazals and nazms. His poems are still loved. Many are spiritual and he is seen as a true Sufi. Ghalib , was born in the city of Agra. He is more famous today and wrote ghazals, qit’as and ruba’is in Persian that are mainly Sufi poems but he is more known now for those composed in Urdu. Iqbal was born in Sialkot, Punjab. He turned to Islam and Sufism for inspiration when early in his life he rejected nationalism. In his final years he returned to Urdu from Persian with ghazals inspired by his Sufism. Introduction: Sufis & Dervishes, Their Art & Use of Poetry, & the various poetic forms they used. Pages 616.

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 Tehran.
“Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz.” Daniel Ladinsky .

Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of over 130 books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages… including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ‘Attar, Sana’i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Lalla Ded, Iqbal and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children’s books and over a dozen screenplays.