Learning from Hafez

"HAFEZ: Omar Khayyam + "Koozeh.gar": 

PERSIAN FOR KIDS: I teach Persian to little children on a part-time basis. And one thing I try to do, from the very early stages, is to include simples stories, simple poems and texts from the vast array of material available in  Persian literature. The goal is to familiarize the kids with the Persian culture as much as with the Persian language itself.
We recently had a class on a well-known Ruba'iyat of Khayyam. The topic is tied to  "Pottery" / Koozeh-gari - We have the Potter, those who buy pots and those who sell them, and questions about it all.  We made a little video of the two students drawing their charming little "Koozeh"/Pots, while Ahmad Shamou would recite this particular poem of Khayyam's. In the photo-collage, I've posted the poem in the children's handwriting - something very delicate about  seeing a little child's handwriting writing out a Ruba'iyat of Khayyam. The children understood the gyst of the poem, and even memorized it. The VIDEO below has them doing their art work with this lovely poem playing in the background.

"KOOZEH-GAR":

I wanted to see find if I could find two poems with the concept of "Koozeh-Gar" in them. One, the Khayyam one we did with the children, and one by Hafez. The Koozeh-Gar in one, is the Maker/God himself (in Khayyam) and in the the other, he is the object of wrongful worship (in Hafez.)

I'll leave it up to you to decipher more of the differences. Being a Hafez Blog - I wanted to have brought the exposure we had to Khayyam's poem with the children, and share with you the role of the "Koozeh-gar" in Hafez and Khayyam.

I - OMAR KHAYYAM / "Koozeh-Gar":

Omar Khayyam finds himself in the workship of the potter - the "Koozeh-gar." There, he comes across 2,000 finished pots. On closer inspection, he discovers that he could actuallyhear the pots speak to him, despite their silence - not with words, but rather, through their emotions - with the language of "hal" / feelings. They are asking: Where is the Maker (God) - the Koozeh-gar? And where is humanity and all those who engage in life, in the buying and selling of these created Pots - the Koozeh-khar and Koozeh-foroosh? Where have all they disappeared to?

در کارگه کوزه گری بودم دوش

دیدم دو هزار کوزه گویای خومش

هر یک به زبان حال با من می گفت

کو کوزه گر و کوزه خر و کوزه فروش

II - HAFEZ / "Koozeh-Gar":

This poem of Hafez's focuses on a beloved who has turned to the wrong audience, and is behaving better towards strangers than his/her own devotees. He uses the anaology of the potter - the "Koozeh-gar" as the ordinary audience that the beloved has turned to, thinking he/she could find the same unique characteristics you find in the extraordinary goblet of Jamshid, in the ordinary potter's wine jug.

گوهر جام جم از کان جهانی دگر است

تو  تمنّا   ز گل  کوزه  گران  می داری

The essence and constitution of the wine goblet of Jamshid (Jam-eh Jam) is not made up of the ordinary earthenware you find in a potter's wine jug. The potter - the "Koozeh-gar" is a person who is incapable of accessing the key ingredient that goes into the making of Jamshids goblet - "Jam-eh Jam" (Jam-eh Jamshid / Jamshid's goblet.) That ingredient comes from the treasures of another world.- and Hafez compares this to a person who thinks any ordinary potter can create the same wine-cup that Jamshid had. Some kind of wrongful worship is taking place.

LINK to Children + Shamlou + Khayyam:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyIkFJBzszo