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For generations, Iranians have turned to the poetry of Hafez for guidance and inspiration.

This bilingual card deck and English interpretation booklet are designed to share that tradition with a wider audience, while staying true to the poet’s words and Persian aesthetics.

Whether you are seeking new insights or simply wanting to connect with this beautiful tradition, this deck offers a way to bring Hafez’s philosophy of love, freedom, and the pursuit of inner truth into your gatherings and daily life.

What is in the box:

• 100 Premium Cards: with front, side and back gold-foil stamping, each with a couplet in Persian and corresponding English translation.

  Please note: This is a small, curated selection of Hafez’s workfor the purposes of doing a Faal (divination), and not the entirety of Hafez’s work.

• 100-Page Guidebook: “O seeker of the Faal, heed this call” - The English soft cover guidebook gives you a starting point for contemplating the message.

• Hard, Magnetic Latch Box: inspired by the look of early medieval calligraphic folios. 

The origin of these cards and guidebook:

During a Yalda gathering a couple of years back to celebrate the longest night of the year with Iranians and non-Iranians, we tried to do a Hafez reading and divination on the spot but weren’t able to capture the true depth and beauty of the original Persian. When looking for solutions, we saw that most Hafez-themed products in the U.S. are created by people who admit they’ve never read Hafez and who do not speak Persian! The accompanying visuals on these products have no connection to the beauty of Persian art.

So our team created these bilingual cards to respectfully help share Hafez's wisdom with a wider group.

About Hafez (also spelled Hafiz):

Mohammad Shams al-Din Shirazi (c. 1315-1390) is one of the most celebrated poets in Persian literature, known for his masterful ghazals (a type of poem) that blend themes of love, divinity, and human longing.

Born in Shiraz, he earned the title “Hafez” for memorizing the Qur’an, a feat that deeply shaped the spiritual and symbolic layer of his poetry.

Renowned for critiquing hypocrisy and celebrating joy, nature, and wine as paths to the divine, Hafez’s collection has become a timeliness tradition for underlining life’s celebrations and struggles.

Translations:

Translating Hafez into English is no simple task. His poetry is a delicate interplay of mysticism, romance, and cultural and linguistic nuance. It is layered with double meanings and metaphors that shift depending on the reader’s perspective. Much of the beauty lies in this complexity, which resists direct translation.

This project owes its existence to the love and dedication of Dr. Wally Shellenberger, whose deep connection to Hafez began during his years living in Iran. Immersing himself in Persian culture and language, he fell in love with the intricacies of Hafez’s poetry and dedicated himself to its translation. Wally generously suggested 100 verses for this project, drawing from his favorite Hafez couplets and his accompanying translations.

The Artwork:

When creating this product, we wanted to make something that could have been created during Hafez’s time. The cards were inspired by a late 15th-century manuscript, ‘Anthology of Poetry’ by Sultan Ali Mashhadi. Its delicate black floral designs on pink, aged paper, accented with gold and silver, inspired the dominant visual theme of this book.

The box design is modeled after a Hafez manuscript held at Harvard Library, whose cover featured a unique opening mechanism. This product combines aesthetics from these sources and other classic designs to create a box that balances historical authenticity with modern functionality.

Weight and Dimensions:

Please see the video below for a visual size comparison.
8×5×2 inches (20×13×6 cm)
Weight: 1 lbs

🇨🇦 Shipping to Canada? To avoid international shipping fees and delays, please purchase this product directly from our partner, Dena Bookstore in Toronto.