---

There are some words and phrases in Hāfez’s Diwān (Book of Poems) which merit careful attention as this brings us closer to the world of his poetry and thought. One of these words is “Jām” (“cup”) and its synonyms. The frequency of this word and its synonyms is indicative of its significance in the mind of the poet. To investigate Jām in Hāfez’s Diwān, the importance of Jām in Persian literature and Hāfez’s Diwān, and the opinions of the old and contemporary exegetes regarding the meaning and function of Jām in Hāfez’s Diwān were explained in this paper. The body of the paper contains two distinct parts: the first part deals with Jām in the tradition of poetry prior to Hafez. There are three kinds of Jām or “Mey” (wine): earthly, mystical, and Khayyamian. The second part is concerned with the display of the artistic skills of Hāfez in dealing with Jām in the following subheadings: 1. The repetition and foregrounding of the word Jām and making it a symbolic motif, 2. Creating opposition by Jām and using it as a tool for political and social struggle, 3. Mixing the various and opposing meanings and functions of Jām, and 4. Making paradoxical expression with Jām to create masterpiece couplets. The conclusion of this descriptive-analytical research is that Hafez intentionally repeated Jām to make it prominent and symbolic and mixed its Islamic and Iranian senses to create a prism of which any reader based on their background knowledge and experience could get various meanings.