Ghazal 256

I will give you counsel — hear it and make no excuse:

whatever the compassionate advisor says, accept.

Take pleasure from the union with young beauties,

for in the ambush of life lies the trickery of the old world.

Seek the bliss of both worlds from lovers,

for this is a small merchandise and that a great gift.

I want a sweet companion and a tuned instrument,

that I may tell my pain in the moaning of bass and treble.

I intend not to drink wine and not to sin,

if destiny accords with my plan.

Since the eternal portion was made without our presence,

if a little is not to our liking, do not quibble.

Like the tulip, pour wine and musk into my cup, O cupbearer —

for the image of the beloved's mole will not leave my mind.

Bring the goblet of lustrous pearl, O cupbearer —

let the envious see the generosity of Solomon's minister, and die.

With the resolve of repentance I set down the cup a hundred times,

but the cupbearer's coquetry never relents.

Two-year-old wine and a fourteen-year-old beloved —

this is enough for me: the company of the young and the old.

Our startled heart — who will catch it?

Give word to the weary madman about the chain.

Do not speak of repentance in this gathering, Hafez —

for the bow-browed cupbearers will strike you with their arrow.