Ghazal 442

By her life — if I had access to my own life,

the least offering to her servants would have been that.

I would have said: What is the price of the dust of her feet? —

if precious life were eternal.

The cypress would have confessed servitude to her stature —

if like the free lily it had ten tongues.

Even in sleep I do not see her — what place for union? —

since this was not and we did not see it, at least that would have been.

If my heart had not become foot-bound in her tresses,

when would it have found rest in this dark dustbin?

In face, like the sun, she is without peer in all horizons —

in heart — alas — if only she were a mote kind.

Would that she had come through my door like a flash of light —

for over these two eyes of ours her command runs free.

When would the lament of Hafez have gone beyond the curtain? —

if it were not the companion of the birds of the morning song.