Poems from the Divan of Hafiz 9

Oh Cup-bearer, set my glass afire With the light of wine! oh minstrel, sing: The world fulfilleth my heart’s desire! Reflected within the goblet’s ring I see the glow of my Love’s red cheek, And scant of wit, ye who fail to seek The pleasures that wine alone can bring!

Let not the blandishments be checked That slender beauties lavish on me, Until in the grace of the cypress decked, My Love shall come like a ruddy pine-tree He cannot perish whose heart doth hold The life love breathes—though my days are told, In the Book of the World lives my constancy.

But when the Day of Reckoning is here, I fancy little will be the gain That accrues to the Sheikh for his lawful cheer, Or to me for the draught forbidden I drain. The drunken eyes of my comrades shine, And I too, stretching my hand to the wine, On the neck of drunkenness loosen the rein.

Oh wind, if thou passest the garden close Of my heart’s dear master, carry for me The message I send to him, wind that blows! “Why hast thou thrust from thy memory My hapless name?” breathe low in his ear; “Knowest thou not that the day is near When nor thou nor any shall think on me?”

If with tears, oh Hafiz, thine eyes are wet, Scatter them round thee like grain, and snare The Bird of Joy when it comes to thy net. As the tulip shrinks from the cold night air, So shrank my heart and quailed in the shade; Oh Song-bird Fortune, the toils are laid, When shall thy bright wings lie pinioned there?

The heavens’ green sea and the bark therein, The slender bark of the crescent moon, Are lost in thy bounty’s radiant noon, Vizir and pilgrim, Kawameddin!