An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 320
Last night, with the flood of tears, I barred the road of sleep;
I traced a design on the water in memory of your down.
The Friend's brow before my sight, and my cloak burnt through,
I drained a cup in memory of the prayer-niche's nook.
Every bird of thought that sprang from the bough-head of speech,
I struck it back again with the plectrum of your tress.
The beloved's face kept showing its splendour before my sight,
and from afar I threw a kiss upon the face of the moon.
My eye upon the cupbearer's face, my ear upon the harp's own word,
I was casting an augury, by eye and ear, on this affair.
The design of the fancy of your face, until the hour of dawn,
I kept tracing on the workshop of my sleepless eye.
The cupbearer, to the sound of this ghazal of mine, kept passing the bowl;
I kept singing this song and draining the pure wine.
Pleasant was the hour of Hafez, and the augury of wish and desire,
which I was casting on the omen of the friends' life and fortune.