The complete Divan of Hafez in Persian and English. All 495 ghazals, translated line by line in a single consistent voice, with the reader's glossary, the literary commentary, and full instructions for the traditional rite. Published 2026 by Vizcroft Publishing, in a collector's hardback and a paperback.
What this edition holds
- All 495 ghazals of the Divan, the Persian text above and the English translation beneath, ghazal by ghazal through the whole book.
- The complete traditional instructions for taking a fal: the silence, the invocation, the random opening, the symbolic reading.
- A reader's glossary of the Sufi vocabulary, from wine and the tavern to the nightingale, the rose, and the dust of the threshold.
- Literary commentary on the poems, and plates drawn for this edition.
- The author's Persian preface, which closes with a wish for the reader: برایتان آرزوی روشنایی دارم. I wish you light.
Hardback $49.95, case binding with dust jacket, ISBN 9781764578264. Paperback $29.95, 745 pages, second edition, ISBN 9781764578257.
Where the text comes from
The Persian text of this edition was collated against the Ganjoor edition, poem by poem, all 495. 396 ghazals carry the same number in both. 58 sit in two adjacent runs that have swapped places between editions, with nothing else moved and the pairings intact. 41 carry the same number with a different opening line. Six poems have contested attribution and are marked in this edition. If a poem you look up by number does not seem to fit, the cause is almost certainly one of those two runs. The poem is the same poem.
The free Fal-e Hafez oracle on this site draws on the same translation. What you consult online is what you hold in the book. Consult the oracle.
The hardback, up close
The night this book was made for
On Yalda Night, the winter solstice, families gather across Iran and the diaspora on the longest night of the year. They eat pomegranates and watermelon, read poetry aloud, and open the Divan of Hafez for the year ahead. The first ghazal drawn on Yalda is said to set the tone of the coming year. On that night the question in the room is not whether to open the Divan, but what to ask it. This edition was built for that table: the Persian for the elders, the English for everyone else, and one book that belongs to the whole family.
Where to buy
Hardback on Amazon · Hardback direct from the publisher · Paperback on Amazon
Read more
The history and the tradition: Hafez of Shiraz, Yalda Night, and the practice of the fal · All books by Alex Vizcroft · About the author