An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 338
I am the lover of the fair face and the heart-alluring tress,
bewildered by the drunken eye and the pure, unclouded wine.
You said: 'Speak but one word from the secret of the primal covenant';
then will I tell it you, when I have drained two goblets down.
I am the Adam of Paradise — yet on this present journey
I lie captive to the love of moon-faced youths.
In loving there is no escape from tuning and from burning:
like the taper I stand fast — do not affright me with the flame.
Shiraz is the mine of the ruby lip and the vein of beauty;
I am a bankrupt jeweller — and therefore in distress.
So many drunken eyes have I beheld within this city
that, by my troth, I drink no wine, and yet am giddy still.
This is a city thronged with coquetry, houris on every side;
I have not a thing — else I'd be the buyer of all six.
If fortune aid me, that I bear my baggage toward the Friend,
the houri's tress shall scatter the dust from off my carpet.
Hafez longs to display the bride of his own nature,
yet I have no mirror at all — and therefore heave this sigh.