A Study of Two Lines of Hafiz's Divan: Pious Masters or Pious Rends

The differences seen in different edited copies of the works of art created centuries ago are not inevitable; and also this issue is something usual for the literary scholars. These differences happen mainly because of the illegibility of the old manuscripts or because some parts have been erased during the course of time. Some differences are also the result of the changes the editors and the compilers have applied to these texts based on their own interests. Hafiz’s Divan is no exception. This article tries to study the following lines by Hafez: Life-givers are the lovely Persian-speakers،O Saki! Give this good news to the old pious masters. These two lines have been interpreted differently. In some editions «pious masters» is used instead of “pious rends”; so different interpretations have been done based on different words used in these two lines. This article compares different editions of these two lines in different sources and tries to justify the preference of “pious masters” over “pious rend”. Studying these two words in relation to the whole Divan and also to the other parts and pieces of these two lines shows the priority of employing “pious masters” over “pious rends”.