Un presagio da Hafez
Ghazal 350
Resolved on repentance, at dawn I said: Let me seek an augury —
but the repentance-breaking spring draws near; what shall I do?
Truth to tell, I cannot bear the sight of it —
that my companions drink, while I look on.
Like the bud with laughing lip, in memory of the King's own feast,
let me take up the cup, and for very longing rend my robe.
In the season of the tulip, physic my brain,
if from the midst of the feast of joy I hold aloof.
Since from the face of the Friend my desire has bloomed like a rose,
the reckoning of the enemy's head I refer to the flint-hard stone.
A beggar of the tavern am I; yet behold me in the hour of wine,
how I put on airs before heaven, and lay command upon the stars.
I, who keep no way or rite of abstemious morsel-nibbling,
why should I reproach the wine-drinking rend?
I will seat upon the throne of roses an idol like a sovereign,
and of the lily and jasmine fashion its collar and its bracelet.
Weary was Hafez of drinking wine in secret;
with the twang of the barbat and the reed I will make his secret plain.