Un presagio da Hafez
Ghazal 196
Those who by one glance turn the dust to gold, the alchemists of grace—
will it ever come to pass that they will cast one eye's edge upon us?
Better my pain kept hidden close than shown to the pretender-leech;
it may be that from the unseen store of secrets they will send the cure.
Since the beloved will not draw the veil away from her fair face,
why does each man, out of his own imagining, spin his own tale?
Since a good end lies not in rakish ways nor in ascetic zeal,
it is best that men should leave their whole affair to grace divine.
Be not devoid of gnosis, for at the great auction-house of love
the men of insight do their trade with none but the initiate.
Just now, behind the curtain drawn, what tumult of intrigue goes on!
Until the hour that curtain falls—what will they do, what deeds are theirs!
If a stone should moan aloud at this our tale, then marvel not;
the people of the heart recite the heart's own tale most sweetly told.
Drink wine, for a hundred hidden sins from strangers, screened behind the veil,
are better far than one obedience worked with hollow show and cant.
A shirt from which there comes to me the very scent of my own Joseph—
I fear his envious brothers still will tear it up to sew a coat.
Pass by the tavern's street, that so the whole assembly of the Present
may spend their every passing hour in prayer and blessing raised for you.
Hidden away from envious eyes, call me to you, for wealthy men
work good in secret, hand concealed, only to win the grace of God.
Hafez, an unbroken union is a thing not to be attained;
kings show but slender heed and care for how a beggar fares below.