This is the beginning of readings of the Persian poet Hafiz' (c.1320-1389) "The Gift" translated by Daniel Landinsky. A reading of an excerpt from the introduction written by  Henry S. Mindlin and the first poem, Startled By God.

This is the audio portion of a multimedia BlogCast found at Different Ways.

2022 Addendum To These Readings: I suppose I should have investigated this further regarding the authenticity of Daniel Ladinsky's translations of Hafiz when I began this series but I didn't. It has since come to my attention (though I could tell by the syntax and common sense that these poems are not authentic translations from the actual 5th century, Persian, poet Hafiz). I think I must be of a similar cut as Mr. Ladinsky because I'm not really caring that these translations are bastards of the actual texts. I'm of the opinion they are a powerful and clear strings of words with meaning and that is enough for me. If this matters to you, there is a case to be made in this article by Tim Mansfield in his Medium article, "You May Think You Love Hafiz". Knock yourself out. I sincerely do not mean to mislead people.  

A riff on these postings can be found on the blog allthedifferentways.com/blog where I've composed thoughts and multimedia responses to this material are posted. Thank you for listening.