HAFIZ The Ugly Little Boy who became a Great Poet Paul Smith HAFIZ is the true story of the ugliest boy of his age but with a remarkable memory whose father dies when he is eight and he has to live with his mother at his Uncle Sadi's house. Hafiz goes to work in a drapery shop where he becomes part of the people's overthrowing of a cruel ruler. He then becomes an apprentice baker, who delivers bread to the rich suburbs of Shiraz, Persia in 1320. One day he catches sight of Nabat, the beautiful daughter of one of the cities wealthy traders, promised to a handsome prince. Hafiz pours his love into his poems/songs dedicated to her. His words are so wondrous that the greatest minstrel of the day Hajji, takes up his instrument and serenades his loved one for him. His experiences with his Spiritual Master, Attar, and his songs and poems soon establish Hafiz as a force for truth and beauty through his much loved Shiraz, ravaged by wars and revolutions. Fame doesn't come easily as the ruthless rulers and priests conspire to silence the ever-increasing power of Hafiz's voice. Will he and Nabat and his friends like the jester Obeyd and the minstrel Hajji survive? Can words of love defeat hate's sword? Will Hafiz gain his heart's desire? 256 pages. Goethe: "In his poetry Hafiz inscribed undeniable truth indelibly He has no peer " Gertrude Bell: "It is as if his mental Eye, endowed with wonderful acuteness of vision, had penetrated into those provinces of thought which we of a later age were destined to inhabit." Paul Smith is a poet and translator of over 80 books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Arabic, and other languages including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu'in, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Rudaki, and others and his own poetry, fiction, children's books, plays, biographies, screenplays.