An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 254
Again from the slender cypress-branch the patient nightingale
sang out: 'May the evil eye be far from the rose's face!'
O rose, in thanks that you are the sovereign of beauty,
show no arrogance to the heart-lost, distracted nightingales.
Of your absence I make no complaint;
till there be absence, there is no relish in presence.
If others rejoice and revel in pleasure and mirth,
for us the Beloved's grief is the very stuff of joy.
If the ascetic hopes for houris and palaces,
ours are the wine-house for palace, and the Friend for houri.
Drink wine to the harp's sound, and eat no grief; and if any say 'Drink not,'
answer him: 'He is the All-Forgiving.'
Hafez, why complain of the grief of parting?
In parting lies union, and in the darkness lies the light.