An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 24
Seek not obedience, covenant, and virtue from me, the drunk;
for I grew famed for draining the cup on the Day of 'Am I not?'
The very moment I made ablution at the fountain of love,
I said the fourfold takbir at once over all that is.
Give wine, that I may tell you the secret of destiny:
by whose face I fell in love, and by whose scent grew drunk.
Here the mountain's waist is less than the ant's waist;
despair not of the door of mercy, O wine-worshiper.
Save that drunken narcissus — may no evil reach its eye —
none has sat in gladness beneath this turquoise vault.
May my soul be a ransom for her mouth, for in the garden of sight
the world's meadow-adorner tied no bud sweeter than this.
Hafez, through the fortune of your love, became a Solomon;
that is — of your union he holds nothing but wind in his hand.