Ghazal 473

Count the moment as a prize, as much as you are able —

the gain of life, O soul, is this breath — know this well.

The sky's granting of desire takes life in exchange —

strive to take the pleasure of life from fortune.

Gardener — when I pass from here, may it be forbidden to you

if in my place you plant any cypress other than the friend.

The repentant ascetic will be killed by the joy of wine —

O wise one, do not do a thing that brings regret.

The morality-guard does not know this much: that the Sufi

has household goods that are like the ruby of the pomegranate.

With the prayer of the early-risers, O sugar-lip, do not contend —

the Seal of Solomon is in the protection of a single Name.

Hear the counsel of lovers and come back from the door of joy —

for all this is not worth the preoccupation of the mortal world.

My dear Joseph has departed — O brothers, have mercy —

for from his grief I see a strange state in the old man of Canaan.

Before the ascetic, do not breathe a word of debauchery — for one cannot tell

the condition of the hidden pain to the unfamiliar physician.

You go, and your eyelashes spill the blood of people —

you go swiftly, O beloved — I fear you may stumble.

I guarded my heart from the arrow of your eye — but

your bow-brow carries it to the forehead.

Gather the scattered Hafez with a kindness —

O you whose curling tresses are the gathering-place of the scattered.

If you are heedless of us, O stone-hearted beauty —

I will tell my state before the second Asaf.