An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 294
In loyalty to your love I am renowned among the fair, like the candle;
I keep night-watch in the street of the brave and the rends, like the candle.
Day and night no sleep will come to my grief-haunted eye,
so bitterly I weep in the fever of your absence, like the candle.
The thread of my patience is cut by the shears of your sorrow;
still in the fire of your love I burn away, like the candle.
Were the courser of my rose-red tears not swift of foot,
how would my hidden secret blaze forth to the world, like the candle?
Amid the water and the flame, still set on you alone,
is this poor wasted heart, that rains down tears, like the candle.
In the night of parting send me one moth of union,
or from your pain I shall set a whole world alight, like the candle.
Without your world-adorning beauty my day is as the night;
with your love's perfection, I stand at the very heart of loss, like the candle.
The mountain of my patience melted soft as wax in your sorrow's grip,
so that in your love's water and fire I dissolve, like the candle.
Like the dawn, but one breath is left me while I gaze on you;
show me your face, heart-thief, that I may scatter my soul, like the candle.
Exalt me one night, O tender one, with your union,
that my hall may be kindled bright by your presence, like the candle.
Strangely the fire of your love has seized the head of Hafez;
when shall I quench my heart's fire with my eye's water, like the candle?