Un presagio da Hafez
Ghazal 200
Do you know what the harp and lute declare and reason forth to us?
'Drink you your wine in secrecy, for they will scourge it if they find.'
They bear away the honour of love, the lustre of all lovers' fame;
they cast their blame upon the young, their fault-finding upon the old.
Nothing was gained but a dull, dark coin—and still, to this same hour,
they cheat themselves with the vain dream that they can conjure elixir.
They say: breathe not, and hearken not, to love's own secret mystery;
a hard and knotted tale it is, this thing that they would have us tell.
We, out beyond the door, are duped by a hundred glittering wiles—
let us but see what stratagem they weave, themselves, behind the veil.
Once more they trouble and disturb the hour of the Magian Elder's peace;
behold these wayfarers of the Path—what things they do to the old sage!
A hundred realms of the heart's own land one buys for but half a glance;
the fair ones, though, in such a trade come short and stint the measure due.
One band would set the Friend's own union upon their striving and their toil;
another band will hand it over, all of it, to destiny.
In sum, put not your trust at all in the false constancy of Time,
for this is a workshop wherein all things are ceaselessly transformed.
Drink wine, for sheikh and Hafez both, and mufti too, and constable—
when you look closely, one and all, they practise nought but hypocrisy.