An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 312
'Glad tidings! when safety alighted at Dhu-Salam,
to God be the praise of one who owns the utmost of His bounties.'
Where is that bearer of good news who told of this victory,
that I may scatter my soul, like gold and silver, at his step?
From the king's return, in this wondrous halting-place,
the marching of his foe is toward the pavilion of non-being.
The breaker of the pact will surely come to a broken state;
'truly, with the King of understanding, all covenants are sacred bonds.'
He sought a mercy from the cloud of hope, but nothing
did his eye give forth in plain sight, save its moisture of tears.
When he sank in the indigo flood of grief, the sphere said, mocking:
'now indeed you have repented — and repentance profits nothing.'
Since the cupbearer was moon-cheeked and one of the folk of the secret,
Hafez drank his wine — and the shaikh and the jurist too.