Ghazal 294

In faithfulness to your love, I am famed among beauties, like a candle —

night-companion of the lane of the daring and the rends, like a candle.

Day and night, sleep does not come to my grief-worshipping eyes —

so much do I weep in the sickness of separation from you, like a candle.

The thread of my patience was cut by the scissors of your grief —

even so, I burn in the fire of your love, like a candle.

If the steed of my rose-colored tears were not swift-running,

how would my hidden secret become known to the world, like a candle?

In the midst of water and fire, still passionate for you

is this wretched, wasted, tear-raining heart of mine, like a candle.

On the night of separation, send me a moth of union —

otherwise from your pain I will burn a world, like a candle.

Without your world-adorning beauty, my day is like night —

with the perfection of your love, I am in the very essence of deficiency, like a candle.

The mountain of my patience has softened like wax in the hand of your grief —

for I am melting in the water and fire of your love, like a candle.

Like the dawn, I have but one breath left with your sight —

show your face, O charmer, that I may scatter my soul, like a candle.

Make me proud one night with your union, O precious one,

that my hall may be illumined by your sight, like a candle.

The fire of your love — Hafez strangely took it into his head —

the fire of the heart — when will I quench it with the water of tears, like a candle?