An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 121
Whoever has a mind at peace and a beloved fair and kind —
felicity has become his friend, and fortune his housemate.
Love's sanctuary keeps a threshold far loftier than reason;
he alone kisses that door who carries his soul in his sleeve.
Her narrow, honeyed mouth is surely Solomon's own realm,
for the seal of her ruby lip holds the world beneath its signet.
A ruby lip and musk-dark down — since she has this and that,
I glory in my beloved, whose beauty holds both this and that.
Look not in scorn, O man of wealth, on the frail and the weak,
for the seat of honour at pleasure's feast may hold a roadside beggar.
While you walk upon the face of the earth, count your strength a spoil,
for the age holds many an hour of weakness laid beneath the earth.
The warder of soul and body is the prayer of the downtrodden;
he reaps good from that harvest who spares the gleaner his shame.
O breeze, breathe a hint of my love to that king of the fair,
who counts a hundred Jamshids and Kaykhosraws his meanest slave.
And should she say, 'I want no bankrupt lover, such as Hafez,'
tell her: a whole sovereignty takes a beggar for its housemate.