Chapter Critique 3: Persian and Arabian Literature
By Harlem Jude P. Ferolino


I'VE SAID IT BEFORE, AND I'LL SAY IT AGAIN
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,
It’s not my fault that with a broken heart, I’ve gone this way.
In front of a mirror they have put me like a parrot,
And behind the mirror the Teacher tells me what to say.
Whether I am perceived as a thorn or a rose, it’s
The Gardener who has fed and nourished me day to day.
O friends, don’t blame me for this broken heart;
Inside me there is a great jewel and it’s to the Jeweler’s shop I go.
Even though, to pious, drinking wine is a sin,
Don’t judge me; I use it as a bleach to wash the color of hypocrisy away.
All that laughing and weeping of lovers must be coming from some other place;
Here, all night I sing with my winecup and then moan for You all day.
If someone were to ask Hafiz, “Why do you spend all your time sitting in
The Winehouse door?,” to this man I would say, “From there, standing,
I can see both the Path and the Way.
-  Hafiz
    
-- image from english.samaylive.com --


“I’ve Said It Before and I’ll Say It Again” is a poem written by Hafiz, an ardent follower of Sufi Mysticism. Sufism is defined as the endeavour to produce a personal experience of the divine through mystic and ascetic discipline.

The poem is about a Sufi drinking wine as a symbol of purification. Purification or “the cleansing of the soul” is one aspect of Sufi Mysticism. Discussed in this poem is the philosophy that our soul belongs to the supreme Spirit, the source of all, and will return from it when the soul’s purpose is done. Through the mystic and ascetic discipline of Sufism, the soul realizes its purpose and his path of spirituality.


From God, the source, came the souls of men. The souls then travel through three different planes: Angelic, Genius, and Physical. From those planes, the souls borrow some qualities present on that plane and bring those qualities as they pass through. From the angelic plane, a soul can borrow qualities such as innocence, love of beauty, deep sympathy, love of song, a tendency to solitude, love of harmony, etc., and will bring these qualities as it proceeds to the next plane, the Genius. A soul can borrow from the Genius plane qualities such as inventive genius, intellectuality, reasoning, law, justice, love of poetry, love of science, etc., and again bring these qualities as it proceeds to the last plane, the Physical. As the soul lives in the Physical plane, it uses the qualities borrowed from the two previous planes, in which people consider some persons as “an angelic person” or “a genius”. Moreover, as the soul lives in the three planes, it also borrows a body that will fit to the atmosphere of the plane where they are in, therefore, in the physical plane, the soul borrows a physical body so that it can experience life in the physical world. Also, the soul borrows an angelic body and a genii body as it lives in the Angelic and Genius Plane.

The things from the three planes are borrowed for a certain purpose, and if the purpose is fulfilled, then every plane asks for that what which the soul has borrowed from it – we call it DEATH. However, death in Sufism does not mean the end, but the start of the soul’s journey to travel its spiritual path leading to God, from where it came from. The physical body and all the material things are returned to the physical plane and the soul is released, in other words, the physical body dies so the soul is freed from its burden (the human body) and proceeds to the Genius plane. This also means that in order to proceed or “rise above”, what the soul borrowed must be returned from where it was borrowed. After the soul is free from the physical body, it proceeds to the Genius plane and also returns the qualities he borrowed from the plane. The soul, being able to return the genius qualities, proceeds to the Angelic plane from where it also returns the angelic qualities, before it can dissolve into the Great Ocean, the supreme Spirit.

In the poem “I’ve Said It Before and I’ll Say It Again”, the Sufi drinks the wine of God’s love “to wash the color of hypocrisy away”, or to purify his soul from negativity. He stands at The Winehouse door to see “both the Path and the Way”, which, in my own interpretation, are referring to the spiritual path leading to the source and the way in realizing the path. The spiritual path starts from the source to the Angelic, Genius, and Physical plane. It continues as the soul dies from the Physical plane, goes to the Genius and to the Angelic plane before it returns to the source, who is God. The way of realizing the path of spirituality is through the discipline of Sufism. In Hafiz’s poem, the Sufi’s way is to drink wine to see “the Path”.

The wine is one of the symbols used in Sufi Poetry. It is a symbol of God’s intoxicating love. To drink wine is to receive the love of God. It is not acceptable in some religions due to evangelical fears of alcohol, but to the Sufis, drinking wine is a mystic and ascetic discipline of experiencing God’s love in their innermost being (expressed in lines 9 and 10: “Even though to pious, drinking wine is a sin, Don’t judge me; I use it as a bleach to wash the color of hypocrisy away.”). The Divine Love intoxicates the persona, washes the hypocrisy away, and cleanses his inner being. More from the Wine Theme of this poem, the “winecup” is symbolized as the Sufi’s heart, more likely his soul. Mentioning the “singing” with the winecup (Sufi’s heart) in the twelfth line, it echoes the “laughing and weeping of lovers” in the eleventh line. The “lovers” have their winecup and use it to sing and moan for [God] all day, which may also mean that, “human beings” have their heart or soul and use it to experience God’s love. Therefore, the “lovers” symbolize the human beings having a “heart” for God. The last symbolism on the poem’s Wine Theme is “The Winehouse door”. The Winehouse door, literally, belongs to “The Winehouse”, and this Winehouse is a symbol for a house or a “banquet hall” where the Sufis drink the wine of Divine’s love. This explains the Sufi’s act of standing from “The Winehouse door”, seeing both the Path and the Way. The Sufi’s soul is cleansed as he drinks from the wine of the Winehouse and by standing from the Winehouse door, he could see his path to God and the way in seeing that path– through the intoxication of Divine love.

Considering other symbols in the poem to explain why the persona seeks purification, we could find one from the second line that the Sufi has a “broken heart”. I would base the symbol to the Theme of Suffering in Sufi Poetry. A “broken heart” results to the emotional suffering of the lover. However, as the lover is suffering, later on he will seek for a better love. The Sufi Poetry’s Theme of Suffering says that one’s suffering leads to a development in seeking Divine love, for the love of God is better than any other love – in fact it is the greatest love of all. In this poem, we learn that the persona’s broken heart led him to drinking wine. With his suffering, the persona seeks to heal his broken heart by drinking the wine of Divine love. He wishes to be purified and experience God’s love in his innermost being. This parallel’s to Pir-O-Murshid Inayat Khan’s line which says, “Out of the shell of the broken heart arises the newborn soul.”

Other symbolisms used in the poem are the “thorn” and the “rose”. Based on the Sufi Poetry’s Theme of Nature-Garden, the rose is a manifestation of God’s beautiful creation, while the thorns protect the rose from its enemies. We seem to hate the thorns for its effect on our hands as we try to pick it up from the garden. In this poem, the persona uses the rose and the thorn as two contrasting ideas of how people perceive him: As a rose which is a beautiful creation or as a thorn that hurts people’s hands – desirable and not. Regardless of the two contrasting perceptions, it is the Gardener “who has fed and nourished [him] day to day”. The Gardener here symbolizes God, the source. It is he who feeds and nourishes the soul with his supreme love.

The symbolism of “the great jewel” is also used in this poem. The “great jewel” symbolizes the soul. The persona says, “Inside me there is a great jewel”. It is a similar statement to, “Inside every human being is a great soul”. The Sufi continues in the 8thline, “and it’s to the Jeweler’s shop I go”. The “Jeweler’s shop” is a symbol for God’s dwelling, for the Jeweller is God. The jewel belongs to the Jeweller and it is to his shop he will go. Mentioned earlier on this critique that the soul belongs to the supreme Spirit and it is to his dwelling he will return, line 8 visibly states this philosophy.

Clearly, the philosophy that the soul is being owned by the supreme Spirit and will return from him when the right time comes is mirrored in the Sufi’s poem “I’ve Said It Before, and I’ll Say It Again” by Hafiz. Hafiz incorporated Sufi symbols in the poem– the wine, the winecup, the Winehouse, the broken heart, the thorn and the rose, the gardener, the great jewel and the Jeweler’s shop, the Path and the Way – to express the endeavour to produce a personal experience of the divine through mystic and ascetic discipline.




References:
Eren, Sadi. “What is love in terms of Sufism?”. Questions on Islam. 5 Sept. 2006. Web. 9 Mar. 2013. {http://www.questionsonislam.com/article/what-love-terms-sufism}.
Schuman , Wendy. “Being Broken Open”. Beliefnet, Inc. Web. 9 Mar. 2013. {http://www.beliefnet.com/Wellness/2004/08/Being-Broken-Open.aspx#}.
Shelquist , Wahiduddin Richard. “Volume XIV - The Smiling Forehead, Part II - The Deeper Side of Life, Chapter III Sufi Philosophy”. Wahiduddin’s Web: The Spiritual Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Longmont, Colorado, 8 Nov. 2006. Web. 8 Mar. 2013. {http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/XIV/XIV_2_3.htm}.
Zeidan, David. “A SUFI READING OF SONG OF SONGS”. Angelfire.com. Web.  8 Mar. 2013. {http://www.angelfire.com/az/rescon/SUFIREADING.html}.