An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 371
The lesson of the dawn we have laid upon the tavern's road;
the harvest of our prayer we have laid upon the road of the beloved.
It sets aflame the granary of a hundred prudent ascetics —
this brand that we have laid upon the frenzied, love-mad heart.
The Sultan of eternity bestowed on us love's grief as treasure,
the hour we turned and laid our face toward this ruined halting-stage.
No more within my heart shall I grant the love of idols passage;
the seal of her one lip we have laid upon this dwelling's door.
Beneath the cloak, no deeper hypocrite than this can a man become;
henceforth we have laid our whole foundation in this roguish, reckless way.
Since this bewildered vessel drifts — where shall it come to rest? —
in quest of that one peerless pearl we have laid our very soul.
Praise be to God, that as heart-lost and faithless as ourselves
was he on whom we laid the name of prudent and of wise.
Content with a mere fancy of you were we, like Hafez, ever;
O Lord, what a beggar-souled, estranged one we have laid ourselves to be.