An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 253
O you, from whose cheek's radiance the tulip-bed of life is glad,
come back, for without the rose of your face the spring of life has ebbed away.
If from my eye the tears drip like rain, it is only fitting,
for in your grief, like lightning, the days of life have fled.
These one or two breaths in which your sight is still possible —
grasp our affair, for the affair of life is far from plain.
How long the dawn-wine and the sweet sleep of morning?
Grow sober — beware, for the choice span of life is past.
Yesterday she was passing, and cast no glance our way;
hapless heart, that saw nothing of life's passing by.
No thought of the ocean of annihilation troubles him
whose life turns wholly upon the point of your mouth.
On every side, of the host of mishaps, an ambush lies;
therefore the rider of life gallops with rein let loose.
Without life I am alive — hold it not too strange;
the day of parting — who reckons it in the count of life?
Hafez, speak on, for upon the page of the world
this design remains from your pen, a keepsake of life.