I
_Stanza 1._—The first line of this song, the opening poem in the Divan,
is borrowed from an Arabic poem by Yezid ibn Moawiyah, the second Khalif
of the Ommiad line. This prince was held in abomination by the Persian
Shi’ites, both as the head of the Sunnis and because he was the cause of
the death of Hussein, the son of Ali, whom the Shi’ites regarded as the
rightful successor to the Khalifate. Hafiz was frequently reproached for
setting a quotation from the works of the abhorred Yezid at the head of
his book, a reproach which he is said to have met with the reply, that
it was good policy to steal from the heretics whatsoever they possessed
of worth.
“In this country (_i.e._ North-Eastern China) is found the best musk in
the world, and I will tell you how it is produced. There exists in that
region a kind of wild animal like a gazelle. It has feet and tail like
the gazelle’s, a stag’s hair of a very coarse kind, but no horns. It has
four tusks, two below and two above, about three inches long, and
slender in form, one pair growing downwards and the other upwards. It is
a very pretty creature. The musk is found in this way: when the creature
has been taken, they find at the navel, between the flesh and the skin,
something like an imposthume filled with blood, which they cut out and
remove, with all the skin attached to it; and the blood inside this
imposthume is the musk that produces that powerful perfume. There is an
immense number of these beasts in the country we are speaking of. The
flesh is very good to eat. Messer Marco brought the dried head and feet
of one of these animals to Venice with him.”—_Travels of Marco Polo._
There is a play of meaning upon the musk which is obtained at the cost
of the deer’s life-blood and the tears of blood which the lover weeps
for his mistress.
_Stanza 2._—The title which Hafiz gives to the Tavern-keeper is
Pir-i-Maghan—literally, the Old Man of the Magians. The history of this
title is an epitome of the history of Persian faiths. It indicated
primarily the priest of the first of Persian religions, that of
Zoroaster. When the Mahommadans invaded Persia, and the preachers of the
Prophet supplanted the priests of Zoroaster, their title fell into
disrepute, and was degraded so far that it came to mean only the keeper
of a tavern or caravanserai. But in this sense it gradually regained the
honourable place from which it had fallen; for the keepers of such
places of resort were, for the most part, men well acquainted with the
“ways of the road and the hostelry.” In their time they may themselves
have served travellers upon their journey; they had heard and learnt
much from the wayfarers who stopped at their gates, and they were able
to guide others upon their journey, sending them forth refreshed and
comforted in body. And here the Sufis took up the ancient name and used
it to mean that wise old man who supplied weary travellers upon life’s
road with the spiritual draught of Sufi doctrine which refreshes and
comforts the soul.