Hafez
c. 1325 to 1390, Shiraz
The tavern of the seeker. Where wine and mirror share the same table.
About Hafez
Khwaja Shams-ud-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi lived his whole life in Shiraz, in what is now Iran, and left a single book: the Divan, a collection of roughly five hundred ghazals. The name Hafez is a title, given to someone who has memorised the Quran.
The Divan is the book Iranians keep in the house. It is read at Yalda and at Norooz, and it is the book opened at random for a fal, a question put to the page. That practice is old enough that the poems are known by their opening lines rather than by number.
غنچه گو تنگدل از كارِ فروبسته مَباش
كز دَمِ صبح مدد يابي و انفاسِ نسيم
Tell the bud: do not be small-hearted at what remains closed — for from the morning's breath you will find help, and from the breeze's sigh.