An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 175
The breeze came round to felicitate the wine-selling Elder,
that the season of mirth and pleasure, of coquetry and drink, has come.
The air breathes now like the Messiah, the wind unseals the pod of musk;
the tree has clothed itself in green, and the bird has burst into song.
The spring wind kindled so the tulip's fiery oven high
that the bud was drowned in sweat, and the rose boiled over its brim.
Hear with the ear of the spirit from me, and strive after delight,
for this word came to me at dawn from the voice of the unseen:
Come back from the thought of scattered self, that you may be made whole,
for by the rule: when Ahriman departs, the angel comes.
From the dawn-bird what the free-born lily overheard, I cannot tell,
that with its ten green tongues it came out into silence.
What place has the company of the uninitiate at the feast of friends?
Cover the cup's bright brim — a cloak-wearing zealot has come.
From the cloister to the tavern Hafez takes his way at last;
perhaps from the drunkenness of hollow piety he has come to his senses.