An omen from Hafez
Ghazal 82
That fairy-featured Turk who left my side but yesternight —
what fault did she find in me, that she took the way of error?
Since that world-beholding eye departed from my sight,
not a soul can tell what things have passed away from my eye.
Last night the fire of my heart, in passing, did not spare the candle —
that smoke which, from the searing of my liver, rose above my head.
Far from your face, moment on moment, from the corner of my eye
the flood-tide of tears came pouring, and the storm of ruin passed.
I collapsed from my feet the hour the grief of parting fell;
I died within my anguish when the cure slipped from my grasp.
My heart said: her union may yet be won again by prayer;
a lifetime it is that my whole life has drained away in prayer.
Why don the pilgrim's garb, when that qibla is not here?
Why toil in the sacred running, when purity has left Marwa?
Yesterday the physician, seeing me, said from the depth of grief:
'Alas, your malady has passed beyond the healer's rule.'
O Friend, take but a single step to look in on your Hafez,
before they come to tell you: he has left the house of decay.