ataraxia

This quote is not by the great Persian poet Hafez, who lived in Shiraz, Persia from 1325–1390, it's by Daniel Ladinsky, a contemporary American poet who "translated" Hafez into English and whose books about Hafez are the most popular "versions" in the West nowadays - the problem is just that the poems written by Ladinsky have absolutely nothing to do with actual Hafez poems (which follow very strict form conventions and the difference is obvious to anyone who has seen a real Hafez poem). Ladinsky does not speak Persian and claims his "translations" came to him in dreams, but if you look at his poems, you see that they are essentially original poetry published under Hafez's name and at most loosely inspired. I can really recommend this article about the whole topic

"I have resigned as poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine. The Israeli state’s U.S.-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyone. There is no safety in it or from it, not for Israel, not for the United States or Europe, and especially not for the many Jewish people slandered by those who claim falsely to fight in their names. Its only profit is the deadly profit of oil interests and weapon manufacturers. The world, the future, our hearts—everything grows smaller and harder from it. This is not only a war of missiles and land invasions. It is the ongoing devastation of the people of Palestine, people who have resisted throughout decades of occupation, forced dislocation, deprivation, surveillance, siege, imprisonment, and torture. Because our status quo is self-expression, sometimes all artists have left is to refuse. So I refuse. I won’t write about poetry amidst the ‘reasonable’ tones of those who aim to acclimatize us to this unreasonable suffering. No more ghoulish euphemisms. No more sanitized hell-words. No more warmongering lies. If this resignation leaves a hole in the news the size of poetry, then that is the true shape of the present."