Stealing Hafiz

by Rick M. Chapman. 80 pages (Heavy art paper illustrated in full color). Published 2011. From the Forward: “I heard God laughing at the attempts of so many of us trying to translate the poetry of a 14th-century Perfect Master without knowing even the most rudimentary elements of his language! The subject tonight may indeed be love, but the pupils, in their arrogance, should submit to public flogging both before and after class, so ridiculous is the idea of trying to render the Persian verse of a fully enlightened soul into language fit for consumption by the masses, oa at least for consumption by other seekers as green as ourselves…” Let this small volume acquaint you with some of the images and ideas found in Hafiz’s writings. STEALING HAFIZ consists of original poetry written by Rick Chapman, a thief and a murderer, for in the poems contained herein he has stolen unabashedly from Hafiz and in so doing he has murdered the form of the ghazal.