An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 472
“I praise God for the justice of the Sultan” —
Shaikh Uways Hasan, of the Ilkhanid line.
Khan son of Khan, and king of kings of royal descent;
one whom it befits, should you name him the soul of the world.
The unseeing eye came to faith through your fortune;
hail, O you made worthy of such grace of God!
Should the moon rise without you, they cleave it in two —
the fortune of Ahmad, the miracle of the Glorious One.
The splendor of your fortune ravishes king and beggar alike;
far be the evil eye — you are at once the soul and the soul's beloved.
Toss your forelock in the Turkish way, for in your ascendant lie
the largesse and might of a Khaqan and a Genghis Khan.
Though far apart, in memory of you we lift the goblet;
in the spiritual journey there is no distance between stages.
From my Persian rose no bud of pleasure has opened;
bravo the Tigris of Baghdad, and the basil-scented wine!
The lover's head, if it be not the dust of the beloved's door —
when shall it find release from the torment of wandering?
O dawn breeze, bring the dust of the Friend's threshold,
that Hafez may make of it the heart's eye luminous.