An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 38
Without the love of your face, no light is left to my day;
and of my life nothing is left me but the pitch-dark night.
At the hour of parting from you, from all my weeping,
far from your face, no light is left to my eye.
Your image was leaving my eye, and it said:
'Alas for this corner, left inhabited no more.'
Your union kept death far from my head;
from the fortune of your parting, now it is not far.
Near is the moment when your rival will say:
'Far from your face, this sick and ailing one is left no more.'
Patience is my remedy for parting from you — but
how can one be patient, when no power is left?
If, in parting from you, water runs from my eye,
say: let it pour the heart's blood, for no excuse is left.
Hafez, from grief and weeping, turned not to laughter;
the mourning-struck have no cause left for a wedding-feast.