https://i.imgur.com/6GNy1vg.jpg

>The jewel of the secret treasury
Is still the same as once it was...

Hafez (or Hafiz, or more properly Khwāja Šamsu d-Dīn Muḥammad Hāfez-e Šīrāzī) might be called the national poet of Iran. He's a major figure in world literature, a poet whose lyricism and wistful languor defy translation - though many have tried. Here's what the Poetry Foundation has to say about him:

>very little is known about his life, but it is thought that he may have memorized the Qur’an after hearing his father recite passages. When his father died, he left school to work at a bakery and as a copyist. Hafiz became a poet at the court of Abu Ishak and also taught at a religious college. He is one of the most celebrated of the Persian poets, and his influence can be felt to this day. As the author of numerous ghazals expressing love, spirituality, and protest, he and his work continue to be important to Iranians, and many of his poems are used as proverbs or sayings.

You can guage the importance of the poet to his countrymen and women throughout the ages by the splendour of the gardens they have built and maintained over the centuries to house his ornate tomb.

https://i.imgur.com/ks2s3cY.jpg


>Still among lovers loyalty is found,
And therefore faithful eyes still strew the ground
With the same pearls that mine once strewed for thee.

https://i.imgur.com/DNnKtZ6.jpg

>The sarcophagus of Hafez.

>Last night, as half asleep I dreaming lay, 
    Half naked came she in her little shift, 
         With tilted glass, and verses on her lips...

Gardens are hugely important in Persian life - in fact, in their art, culture and even theology. Divided into quadrants in accordance with pre-Islamic, Zoroastrian philosophy, water plays and sparkles in pools and fountains, catching dappled sunlight among the lemon and pomegranate trees.

https://i.imgur.com/xr8qIqM.jpg

But for every garden there is a fortress. The territory of Iran has been fought over - by would-be foreign conquerors, by rivals to the throne - for millenia. Shiraz and the Shirazis are known for their poetry and their art. They are famous for their easy-going ways - or notorious for their laziness, according to Isfahanis. But the citadel still stands in the heart of the city, place, fortress, and one-time prison...

https://i.imgur.com/nfZs0QC.jpg

This is the Arg-e Karim Khan, military heart of the eighteenth century Zand dynasty. Built like a medieval European castle, its interiors were decorated with fine frescos depicting bird-filled gardens. Its light and peace spill from room to room - though this pleasant cool must have seemed like an armed labyrinth to the prisoners entombed here.

https://i.imgur.com/iMWFLMK.jpg 

Bazaar, bath-house and mosque. The princes and potentates of Iran shouldered an obligation to erect complexes containing one of each around their palaces. It feels as if, having seized power over their countrymen, they took the offensive against the searing, secular heat of the desert and the mountain.

https://i.imgur.com/n126Z7K.jpg

>"Hafiz, thy praise alone my comrades sing;
Hasten to us, thou that art sorrowing!
A robe of honour and a harnessed steed
I send to thee."

https://i.imgur.com/g5M4Aad.jpg

***The first instalment of this travelogue can be found [here](https://steemit.com/travel/@martinmooney/discover-iran), in case you missed it.***

***Quotations from the odes and ghazals of Hafez are from the Getrude Bell translations available online at [Black Cat Poems](http://www.blackcatpoems.com/h/hafez.html), apart from 'Last night...' which is by Richard le gallienne, available at [the Poetry Foundation](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50488/ode-44). Read more about Hafez [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafez)***