Pune The City of God

PUNE: THE CITY OF GOD(A Spiritual Guidebook to the New Bethlehem)Poems & Photographs by Paul SmithIn 1985 the author began to feel the need (usually on the site, or shortly afterwards) to put pen to paper and express in free-form, internally-rhyming poetry… a kind of descriptive inner and outer guide to each ‘Baba place’ in Meher Baba’s birth-place of Pune, as he was experiencing it… a ‘feeling’ of the presence of the Master from the past that was still available… and, (having gone back often to many of the places and discovered this)… the future. He began to take photographs of the places at the same time, sometimes even in the middle of writing the poem. Interestingly, often when he read these poems to others they inspired them to visit Pune and see and experience Meher Baba’s presence in these places for themselves. 200 pagesCOMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH’S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ’S ‘DIVAN’.“It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished.” Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran.“Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith.” Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of many mystical works in English into Persian and knower of Hafiz’s Divan off by heart. “Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz.” Daniel Ladinsky. Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of over 80 books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages… including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ‘Attar, Sana’i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children’s books and a dozen screenplays.