The Little Black Boy

My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but oh! my soul is white.
White as an angel is the English child,
But I am black as if bereaved of light.

My mother taught me underneath a tree,
And, sitting down before the heat of day,
She took me on her lap and kissed me,
And pointing to the east began to say:

"Look on the rising sun, -there God does live
And gives his light, and gives his heat away;
And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday.

And we are put on earth a little space
That we may learn to bear the beams of love;
And these black bodies and this sunburnt face
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

For when our souls have learned the heat to bear
The cloud will vanish, we shall hear his voice
Saying: `Come out from the grove, my love and care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice!' "

Thus did my mother say, and kissed me;
And thus I say to little English boy:
When I from black and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,

I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear
To lean in joy upon our father's knee;
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him, and he will then love me.

By: Wiliam Blake

My Healer

I sometimes feel some pain deep inside me. I ask God why I am suffering from that pain. Then I feel God touching my heart he takes all of my pains away. After 20 years I now understand if I hadn't had him with me all these years I would have been a loser now. He has helped me. He has healed all my pains. I'm living because I feel his love that goes right to my heart and makes me smile. It is his love that helps everyone(those who believe in him) to put up with all their obstacles in life.

Saviour

I'm sitting here calling for help, there is no one around. It seems there are some shadows which come and go. There're just shadows. They show no reaction to me sitting. It's now 20 years that I'm sitting here and I'm calling for help. I'm too weak to walk. From time to time some one comes and whips me. It's really painful. He whips me so much that I faint from the pain. Every time he comes with a new face. He whips me because I can't walk. I wish someday I could run away from the whipping man. I need someone to take my hands and show me the way. There something inside telling me "you can't walk because you don't know the way." If my saviour comes the first thing he'll do is to kill the whipping man. "Where do you come from" I once asked the whipping man "from you" he answered with a loud laughter. I was shocked I didn’t want to believe it. I am sure that my saviour will come soon. He'll save everyone, even the shadows.

The picture is from:

Hi, I'm a puppet

I am a puppet. I wish I had the chance to live. This is the wish of every puppet I know of. You might think it's funny but you should live in the world of puppets to feel how a puppet feels. I don't know everyone around me but it seems that we are all very alike. It seems we share something that we know nothing about it. I partly know one being. I speak, read, and live for her. She lives inside me. Maybe she is that delicate hand that moves me every day. The only thing I know about her is that she sometimes can be as nice as an angle and sometimes she becomes a devil. So she's sometimes calm, emotional caring and sometimes she's out of control like a child. It seems that she's in touch with a higher being. If not so I'm sure that she knows someone else. It seems that she's always waiting for something to happen or someone to come.

the picture is from:

http://www.artlinkphoenix.com/images/artlink/ff/great_arizona_puppet_theater_large.jpg

Our Empty Box

I and lots of other are in this box. We are living here. We can't do much. We just eat, breath, and sleep. This box is smells of nothing. No one has enough space. There is a man in front of me from time to time he step my feet and his elbow is in my right eye. I know stepping on my foot is a sign that I am hungry and I need some water. I hate him. There is a lady in my back she is always saying something in my ear even when I'm sleep. She is cautious. I like her more than the man. I dream about both the man and the lady but I have never seen them. The only thing we do in the box is talking about what happens if we could spend one day out of this box we always say why we are in this box and we never come up with an answer. There is girl next to me she just cries and never tells anyone what is wrong. A boy on my left he has only a knife with which he cut himself all day long .He doesn't talk with anyone either. I sometimes watch him when he sees the blood coming out of his skin he laughs loudly. We are all waiting for something to happen but it seems that nothing and nothing is going to happen. Everything repeats and we are all waiting for something to happen.

Thank You

Thank you professor Marandi you really made a difference with what you taught us this semester.This is from every student in your writing class.

Id, Ego, Super-ego

Id: The newborn child is regarded as being completely 'Id-ridden', in the sense that it is a mass of instinctive drives and impulses, and demands immediate satisfaction. This view equates a new born child with an id-ridden individual - often humorously - with this analogy: an alimentary tract with no sense of responsibility at either end!
The id is responsible for our basic drives such as food, sex and aggressive impulses, and demands immediate satisfaction. It is amoral and egocentric' ruled by the pleasure-pain principle; it is without a sense of time; completely illogical; primarily sexual; infantile in its emotional development; will not take 'no' for an answer; is without verbal representation and therefore does not enter consciousness.
Ego: The word ego is taken directly from Latin where it is the nominative of the first person singular personal pronoun and is translated as "I myself" to express emphasis.
In Freud's theory, the ego mediates among the id, the super-ego and the external world. Its task is to find a balance between primitive drives, morals, and reality while satisfying the id and superego. Its main concern is with the individual's safety and allows some of the id's desires to be expressed, but only when consequences of these actions are marginal.

Super-ego: The super-ego tends to stand in opposition to the desires of the id because of their conflicting objectives, and is aggressive towards the ego. The super-ego acts as the conscience, maintaining our sense of morality and the prohibition of taboos.

The Interpretation of Dreams” – Perhaps his most significant writing Freud Believed that whatever our conscious mind was afraid to deal with came to the forefront of our thinking through dreams. He believed dreams are our mind’s way of letting the unconscious come to the surface.

Taken from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego

http://users.wfu.edu/canamp6/FYS100/Index.html

The Dream

It was someone's funeral. I was there. I was asking "whose funeral is it?" but it seemed that no one could see me. Then I saw a group of people carrying my body, yes it was my dead body." I'm not alive! Now I remember what happened, I have committed suicide. Few hours ago I took some pills oh, it was awful. Now I hate those people who made my life a hell. I hate all of them. Perhaps they are now saying "she was a fool, she did nothing with her life" but they don't know all the things I know all the things I can't express. Now I'm leaving the earth I'm going somewhere that is better than the hell I experienced on earth. I hear something. I wake up. It was a nightmare no it was not a nightmare it was a sweet dream. I sit on my bed I can see some pills on my left. I think is easy to make dream come true.

By:Raheleh

the picture is from:http://www.thebeanstock.com/catalog/product_info.php...

IRAN

Everyone knows that Iran has beautiful hot desert. But unfortunately not many people visit these deserts. The best thing about Iran's desert is its clear sky. At night when you look at the sky you think if you rise your hand up you will be able to pick the stars. You feel that there is nothing between you and the sky .Unfortunately I don't have any picture of Iran's deserts so I will some picture of Iran's northern woods.










The pictures below are from Kish Island In Persian Gulf.
Unlike other Islands Kish is peaceful place to spend your holidays.

http://www.persiancarpetguide.com

http://www.darwantour.com

http://www.farhangsara.com

I'm Crying

It was about 20 years ago that I was nothing. I had no body no soul no nothing. Then in one of the cold winter evening I became I. I heard a sound which told me "you are a human now." "Why should I be a human I want to be nothing. I am happy of being nothing." I said. The sound told me you have your mission just like other humans." I too weak too do missions I like to live up here rather than down there." the sound told me" I give you this (pointing to my head) to solve and to think, I give you this (pointing to stomach) to eat and be strong, I give you soul to dream and go beyond the physical world…. He name few more thing (that unfortunately I don’t remember) and the last was" if you missed me you can cry." Being an infant I cried, being a child I cried, being a teenager I cried, still I cry and every time I do I hear his voice in my ear "If you missed me you can cry."

The Pilgrimage

The following poem is by George Herbert. I hope you enjoy reading it.

I traveled on, seeing the hill where lay
My expectation.
A long it was and weary way.
The gloomy cave of desperation
I left on th'one, and on the other side
The rock of pride.

And so I came to fancy's meadow, strowed
With many a flower;
Fain would I here have made abode
But I was quickened by my hour.
So to care's copse I came, and there got through
With much ado.

That led me to the wild of passion, which
Some call the wold
A wasted place but sometimes rich.
Here I was robbed of all my gold
Save one good angel, which a friend had tied
Close to my side.

At length I got unto the gladsome hill
Where lay my hope,
Where lay my heart; and, climbing still,
When I had gained the brow and top,
A lake of brackish waters on the ground
Was all I found.

With that abashed, and struck with many a sting
Of swarming fears,
I fell, and cried, "Alas, my king!
Can both the way and end be tears?"
Yet taking heart I rose, and then perceived
I was deceived:

My hill was further; so I flung away,
Yet heard a cry,
Just as I went: None goes that way
And lives: "If that be all, "said I,
"After so foul a journey, death is fair,
And but a chair."

Listen to me Please

He sometimes feels sick of holding so many wicked people in his heart. His biggest wish is to move from its place to somewhere that no soul could ever live in him. He loves to be isolated form his people since Tehranis have shown no mercy to him. The city can only breathe at night when everyone is asleep and when the wind had moved the polluted air to Varamin. Tehran hates its situation but is too weak and tired to take action against its enemy. He have attempt to change his situation long before but it didn't help. He is tired of listening to the sound of his tears. There have been some people who felt sorry for him but none tried to help. He knows that the world will end somewhere bright and warm and that is the only thing that keeps him alive.

Sadeq Hedayat

"My life appeared to me as unnatural, uncertain and incredible as the design on the pencase I am using at this moment. It seems that a painter who has been possessed, perhaps a perfectionist, has painted the cover of this pencase. Often, when I look at this design, it seems familiar; perhaps it is because of this design that I write or perhaps this design makes me write."

He is an Iranian Famous writer. He was born in 1903 to an aristocratic family. He was education at the best schools in Tehran. In 1925, he traveled to Europe to continue his Studies. In the French high school, Lycée Français, in Tehran he become accustom to western literature. He was affected by the works of some western's writes such as Franz Kafka, Edgar Allen Poe, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Anton Chekhov. In 1930 he came back to Iran and he held different official jobs. Se qatre khun (three Drops of Blood), Alaviyeh Khanum (Madame Alaviyeh), vagh vagh sahab (mister bow wow), Haji Agha (Mr.Haji) are some of his collection of his short stoires. Parvin Dokhtar-e sasan (Parvin, sassan's daughter), Maziyar, and Afsaneye Afarinesh (The Fable of Creation)are his plays. His most famous work is "The Blind Owl" which has been translated into English, German, French, Indian, and Urdu.

Meat No More

They are many reasons that some people become vegetarians. Some want to improve their health and loss weight. Many of them find it immoral to kill and eat animals. Some are concern with the issue of environment and world hunger. All of their reasons are acceptable. It's essential to know whether or not meat is the appropriate food for human physically and ethically.

When we look at nature wild animal kill and eat others. They do this by nature. Their body and biology have been created in a way that they can only eat meat. Their teeth, jaws, paws, and their stomach have been created for eating meat. So we can say they only eat meat since they can't eat anything else. But humans' body and biology is not the same as wild animals. Human's delicate fingers and round shiny teeth, and stomach have nothing to do with jumping on back of a zebra and tearing its skin and eating it. So meat is not the real food of human. If it was humans never had to cook meats and use lots of spice in order to make it tasty. Unlike wild animals humans have other choices in eating like vegetables and fruits.


Experiments have shown that having no meat dishes reduces the risks of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and some forms of cancer. It is believe that vegetarians don't get essential amino acids from vegetable proteins. But studies have shown that all of the essential amino acid can be found in non meat sources. And there is no need for vegetarians to combine plant protein sources in each meal since "the human body can store essential amino acids and combine them as necessary." www. primusweb.com.

Ethically killing and eating animals is wrong. It's true that animals don't have common sense but they do have feelings and there is no doubt that they feel fear when we want to kill them. If you catch a squeal you will feel that its heart is beating fast. This shows they do feel fear and they like they life instinctually. We didn't give them the right to live so who are we to take that away from them. And if each of us has had to provide his/her daily meat who had had the guts to do so. Who could take a knife and cut the sheep's head off with lots of blood splashing. Killing and eating animals is not what individuals' desire. So providing meat is very different form providing fruit and vegetables and it's not the human desire to kill and eat.

In the end, it is not strange if someone doesn't eat meat. Eating vegetables and fruits are physically and ethically right. Human have been created biologically to eat vegetables and fruits.


(Some of the famous vegetarians are Leonardo Da Vinci, Charles Darwin, Socrates, Plato, Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, and Mark Twain)

http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/library/nutrition/vegetarian.htm#famous%20vegetarians

the picture is from:http://www.diabetes-diabetic-diet.com/images/vegetarian

For more information see Hedayat's book"favayedeh giyahkhari"

Take Time to

A few days ago one of my Friends sent me the following poem. Take time to read it

TAKE THE TIME


Take time to love
It is the secret of eternal youth

Take time to laugh
It is the music of the heart

Take time to cry
It is the sign of a large heart

Take time to read
It is the source of knowledge

Take time to hear
It is the power of intelligence

Take time to think
It is the key of success

Take time to play
It is the freshness of childhood

Take time to dream
It is the breath of happiness

Take time to live
Because time passes quickly
And never returns
Happy road to life
my friend.

Historical Houses

There are a few historical houses in Kashan, a city near Esfahan. The antiquity of these houses is nearly 200 years. They show the art of the gifted Iranian architectures.
I visited those houses a month ago. Now I want to share some of its pictures with you. I hope you'll have a chance of visiting the place.








Alavi's historical house













Tabatabai's historaical house










Inner view of the house.
These windows with their colorful glasses give a different look to every room when the sun light passes them.

Raheleh Hajizadeh

The Celebration

I'm sure you all had seen horror movies or perhaps had some scary experience which had ended happily ever after. Well, my experience wasn't of that kind. It was 6 years ago no perhaps 6 years and 9 month ago. We were living in an old and gloomy house in London. I had some weird feeling about the place.

I woke up in the middle of the night. I looked at the clock it was 2:30 am. Wow, I had more than 4 hours time to sleep. "What a pleasure sleeping is" I thought, I put my heard on my pillow but suddenly I head a noise. Perhaps it was not a noise; I heard someone talking and then a loud laughter. But that was not a human being talking and laughing. Humans can never make those shape sounds. I was sure it was coming from the kitchen. I felt coldness in my body. A few minutes later I had few of them talking loudly together. From time to time they laughed all together. It seemed that one of them was telling the other how to kill one of the humans, they hated, and others laughed to show their agreement. I could imagine their faces while they were laughing. There were all in front of eyes with their gloomy and hairy faces, long eyebrows, and their skinny dark hands with long ugly fingernails which were coming to choke me. I couldn't breath I was scared to death. I felt beads of sweat rolling down my face. Then I heard them eating and drinking. At that moment I was sure they were celebrating perhaps a wedding, a birthday I had no idea. One of them open the refrigerator, then a sound of opening a bottle I was sure it was my grapes juice bottle. Then, I heard him pouring the juice for all of his friends. After dinking their juice they all made a very strange "haaaa" sound. I couldn't believe it how could they drink my grapes juice without asking me, mean creatures. They spend the rest of the night laughing and talking (also scaring me).then I remember what my sister told me two weeks ago. I remember how she tried to explain to me what sounds she had heard in the middle of the night. I don't remember how I went to sleep again. In the morning, when I got to the kitchen everything was in its place. It seemed that no one touched anything from the last night. But I was sure I heard them being here and celebrating something I tired to convince myself that I was wrong about those creatures gathering in the kitchen last night, perhaps I had a nightmare. I open the refrigerator to drink some but water found my grapes juice bottle empty! When of looked closer at the bottle I saw the dirty fingerprints of those skinny dark hands with their long ugly fingernails.

by Raheleh Hajizadeh

Yalda

My favorite Iranian custom





To begin I have to mention that all Iranian costumes are wonderful. In my opinion "Yalda's night" is a bit different from all. On the night of 21st of December which is the longest night of the year Iranians celebrate Yalda .Yalda meanes birth and it's the birth of sun and love because after Yalda the days become longer. Some believe Yalda came from Mithraism who celebrated the birth of eizadeh Mehr on this night. Whole the families gather and they try to spend the night with each other. Iranians eat watermelon, nuts, and pomegranate on this night. They believe eating watermelon on this night helps you body resist any illness during the coming winter .They read Hafez divan or Ferdowsi's epic poems on this night. They stay late at night and enjoy every second of their gathering. It’s hard to find an Iranian who does not have any nice memories of this night.

Translated by Raheleh Hajizadeh
http://www.vcn.bc.ca/oshihan/Pages/Yalda.htm

Roubaiyat of khayyam

Here are some Rubaiyat of khayyam, I hope you all enjoy it.


In childhood we strove to go to school,
Our turn to teach, joyous as a rule
The end of the story is sad and cruel
From dust we came, and gone with winds cool.


Khayam, if you are intoxicated with wine, enjoy!
If you are seated with a lover of thine, enjoy!
In the end, the Void the whole world employI
magine thou art not, while waiting in line, enjoy!

Heaven is incomplete without a heavenly romance
Let a glass of wine be my present circumstance
Take what is here now, let go of a promised chance
A drumbeat is best heard from a distance.

The secrets eternal neither you know nor I
And answers to the riddle neither you know nor I
Behind the veil there is much talk about us, why
When the veil falls, neither you remain nor I.

Links:
http://www.okonlife.com/poems/page2.htm
http://www.kellscraft.com/rubaiyatcontent.html

Being Paralyzed

I was sleeping in my bed I could feel everything around me. But at that moment my body turned into stone or perhaps iron, no perhaps someone was sitting on my chest and didn't let me breathe. I thought I was going to die. At that moment I really wanted to wake up and move but I couldn't. I decided to call for help. My soul came out of my stoned body. It stood in front of my sister's bed calling to her "wake me up please Tary, wake me up" it seemed she couldn't hear it." Wake me up" it shouted this time. My soul picked the cell phone and thrown it at her in order to wake her up, it seemed that she was dead. The soul found it useless and returned to my body. Now it was the time for my mind to make a decision. "There is no reason to wake up when the body has turned to stone, go back to sleep". I tried to relax a bit, then I felt a shocking shake in my body and I couldn't breathe. It was killing me. The only way was to start moving. I started with my finger. I used all of my energy to move my right index finger it was as if I was moving a rock or a mountain. I made it I moved it. In that moment I felt someone has thrown me into my bed. I could feel beads of sweat running down my face. I looked around, I saw my sister deep in sleep. I still don't know how to get rid of this kind of experience, which experts call it sleep paralysis.


What you read above was my first experience of sleep paralysis. Till now I have had more than 50 experience of SP. I have found out that moving my eyes helps more that moving my finger. Remember if you sleep in a supine position the chance of having SP will increase. If you have experienced SP please share it with me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/prevent.html

A Letter to GOD

Dear God,

As a child I always had hundreds of questions about the universe and this world, I always wondered where this universe ends and how those shiny stares were created. But now as a 20 years old girl I ask myself how human have been created. I look at the world and all I see is war, misery, injustice, and corruption. In contrary to many people I don't believed that you created us to suffer. I believe we are here to LEARN. I think we still have some problems with the concept of Humanity, Love, life, and many more. (And that's why we are suffering from injustice, war, and such) Well, in this year I ask for LIGHT to over come the DARKNESS. I ask you to help us to learn how to love, how to live and to help one another. I will end with this poem of Sa'di to remind myself of humanity and love.
The children of humanity are each other's limbs
That share an origin in their creator
When one limb passes its days in pain
The other limbs cannot remain easy
You who feel no pain at the suffering of others
It is not fitting for you to be called human"
NOTE: I have omitted some part of the letter because it's personal. If I share it with you it will put me into trouble.

Norouz

The whole family was sitting in front of the table. They were looking at the o'clock from time to time, feeling something in their hearts, a kind of joy. Girls with make up and boys with a smile on their lips as if they were all waiting for a big ceremony. The girl was looking at mirror on the table. She was thinking about those people (in the long great history of her country) who had sat in front of Haft_sin table. Like everyone else she was quite proud to be an Iranian.


….yes this is how Iranian celebrate their New Year (Norooz) on 21st of May.They all gather in front of a table which has the Haft sin in it. Haft_sin (seven "s"s) and they prey to have a good year. Haft sin consists of:

Samanoo: It's is made of germinating wheat and it's really sweet.
Senjed: It's a sweet fruit.
Gold Fish: Hoot (fish) which is the sigh for Esfand (the last month of year) is placed on the table to show the changing the month of Hoot (fish) to Farvardin (first month of the year and also symbolizes life and rebirth of nature.
Apple: It is placed on Nowrooz table to signalize giving birth and fertility of earth
Coins: It show that people are asking for a good financial year.
Sabzeh: People grow greens few days before New Year and they place it on the haft sin table.
Holy Book (Quran)
Orange: Orange being round represent the glob and some people put orange on a blow of water and when this orange moves in the water it shows the rotation of earth which is the cause of all the coming new seasons.
Eggs: It is placed on the table of nowrooz to signify fertility.
Somagh (samuc), serke(vinger), seir(garlic) are other s's of haft sin.

Visiting the relatives in the begging of the Year:
In the first 12 days of the New Year (usually before the holiday is over) relatives visit each others. It is always the youngest who visit the elder ones first. (Children visiting parents, nieces visiting aunts…..) And than the elder ones would visit the youngest.

Siezdeh bedar (spending the thirteenth):
In the thirteenth of Farvardin (first month of the year) people go outdoor to spend their sizdeh.
They try to have fun and be happy on this day. People believe that 13 is fateful so they all try to spend the day out and throw away the bad luck of the day outside. People make wishes and than they tie a knot on their sabzeh they believe by doing so they will reach the wishes till the end of the year.

Char shanbe soori

JUMPING OVER FIRE:

In the evening of last Wednesday of the year people celebrate the red Wednesday. In sassanid's period people used to make fire and danced around the fire and showed their happiness. They never jumped over fires since they found it disrespectful. But now in Iran people burn some wood and they jump over it at the time they sing "Sorkhye tou az man zardi man az tou" (addressing the fire) meaning give me you redness and take away all my paleness and yellowish look. By jumping over a fire the taking its energy and redness they would start a healthy year.

SPOON BEATING:

In the evening of red wednesday girls wish for something then they stand in front of houses .Only by beating (they are not allowed to ask for food orally) on their pot and plates they ask for something to eat (nuts, food, or sometimes money) they can only perfume that beating action in front of seven houses if in the end they were not able to collect anything their wishes won't come true.

Translated by Raheleh

Links:http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8512170246

If you want to see Norooz recipes visit:

http://www.iranmania.com/norooz/recipes.asp

Persian Poets

I have decided to write about two famous Persian poets. I hope next time I would be able to write also about Rumi and Khayyam.

Hakīm Abul-Qāsim Firdawsī Tūsī Ferdowsi Tousi:

He is a famous figure in Persian literature. He was born in 935 in the province of Khorasan (the north-east of Iran).He wrote Sah'nameh (shah: king, nameh: book) which is a national epic in verse.

He spent nearly thirty years for writing this great book. Iranians have been reading this masterpiece for over a thousand years. He says " I suffered during these thirty years, but I - the Ajam(non Arab) - have revived the Persian language; I shall not die since I am alive again, as I have spread the seeds of this language ..." many poets tried to write epics like Shahname but non of them could achieve Fordowsi's style and language.

One of the popular characters of shahnameh is Rostam who is a mythical hero he is able to do lots of extraordinary things. He appears in my stories such as "Haft Khan","Rostam va Esfandiar"and "Rostam va Sohrab. "Rostam and Sohrab" is a tragedy in which Rostam not knowing Sohrab's identity Rostam wounds Sohrab and in the last minutes he finds out that Sohrab is his own son.

Rostam and Esfandirar Rosatm is killing the dragon

Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi

He is the most famous Persian poet. He was born in early 13th century in Shiraz. Hafez means "Knowing by heart" because he Knew Quran by heart they called him Hafez. (Some say he was really good at learning anything by heart)

He has used many poetic devices to expresses spiritual feelings of a mystic. Ambiguity is the main feature of his poems which makes it hard for ordinary people to find the meanings in poems. It is believed that the governors in Hafez period were against mysticism and this made Hafez to give an ambiguous tone to most of his poems.
In one of his poems he says.
Am I a sinner or a saint,
Which one shall it be?
Hafiz holds the secret of his own mystery...


In my view the music in Hafez poems is unique. This music can be noticed even by a non native. In most of his poems he decries Zahed (ascetic), sheikh (religious leader), and vaiez (preacher in mosque) wisely. Because he believed they had a real shallow understanding of God and religion. So he mocks them by using verbal irony and sarcastic language.

have learned so much from God
That I can no longer call myself
a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself with me
That I can no longer call myself
a man, a woman, an angel, or even a pure soul.
Love has befriended Hafiz so completely.
It has turned to ash and freed me
Of every concept and image my mind has ever known.

His Divan (collection of his poems) is really popular among Iranians. For example in shabe yalda (one of the Iranian's customs) relations gather and they read Hafez.12th of October has be called the Hafez day in Iran.

Hafez-Goethe memorial in Weimar.

hhhhhhhh

hhhhhhhhhhggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

Note: they had written thousands books on Hafez and Ferdowsi so what you just read was a drop from an ocean.

Links:

http://www.iranica.com/articles/v11f5/v11f5004

http://www.poetseers.org/thepoetseer/hafiz/h_p/2