An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 463
'The peace of God, as long as the nights come round,
and the paired strings and the melodies answer' —
'Upon the valley of the arak-trees, and all thereon,
and the dwelling by the sand-dunes above Liwa.'
I am the prayer-sayer for the strangers of the world,
'and I pray on, unceasing, one prayer after another.'
To whatever stage she turns her face, for God's sake,
keep her safe by the never-failing grace.
Lament not, O heart — for within her tress's chain
all gathering lies hid beneath a seeming disarray.
From your line of down a hundred more beauties arose;
may your life run a hundred Jalali years!
It is you who must be — else the loss is a light one,
the mere squandering of the stock of a rank and a wealth.
Praise be upon that painter of power divine,
who draws round the moon a crescent line of down.
'For your love is my ease at every hour,
and your remembrance my companion in every state.'
May the dark core of my heart, until Resurrection,
never lie empty of longing and passion for you.
Whence shall I gain the union of a king like you,
I, the ill-famed, the reckless, roguish lover?
God knows what aim Hafez holds; 'and God's own knowledge
is my sufficiency, beyond all my asking.'