Ghazal 495

From the Divan of Hafez · 8 couplets

The Oracle Speaks

...

Ask for wine and scatter roses — what do you seek from the world?

This the rose said at dawn — nightingale, what do you say?

Set your seat in the garden — that the beauty and the cupbearer,

you may take their lips and kiss their cheeks, drink wine and smell the rose.

Set the boxwood in motion and turn toward the garden —

that the cypress may learn from your stature how to win hearts.

Until your laughing bud — to whom will fortune give its favor?

O branch of the elegant rose, for whose sake do you grow?

Today, when your market is full of eager buyers,

seize the moment and store a treasure from the capital of beauty.

Since the candle of fair-facedness is in the path of the wind,

take a portion of art from the candle of fair-facedness.

That tress, whose every curl is worth a hundred musk-pods of China —

how sweet it would be, if it had a scent of good nature.

Every bird came to the garden of the king with a song —

the nightingale with melody-making, Hafez with ghazal-singing.

مِی خواه و گُل‌اَفشان کن، از دَهر چه می‌جویی؟

این گفت سَحرگَه گُل، بلبل! تو چه می‌گویی؟

مَسْنَد به گُلستان بَر، تا شاهد و ساقی را

لَب گیری و رُخ بوسی، مِی نوشی و گُل بویی

شمشاد، خُرامان کُن وآهنگِ گُلِسْتان کُن

تا سَرو بیآموزد از قَدِّ تو، دل‌جویی

تا غنچهٔ خندانت، دولت به که خواهد داد

ای شاخِ گُلِ رعنا، از بهرِ که می‌رویی؟

امروز که بازارت، پرجوش خریدار است

دریاب و بِنِه گنجی از مایهٔ نیکویی

چون شمعِ نکورویی، در رهگذرِ باد است

طرْفِ هنری بَربَند از شمعِ نکورویی

آن طُرِّه که هر جَعْدَش، صد نافهٔ چین اَرْزَد

خوش بودی اگر بودی بوییش ز خوش‌خویی

هر مُرغ به دستانی در گلشنِ شاه آمد

بلبل به نواسازی، حافظ به غزل‌گویی

Source: Ganjoor.net

Reflect on This Poem

If this ghazal appeared as your reading today, consider:

  • Which line stirred something in you — comfort, longing, or unease?
  • What question were you holding when you arrived at this page?
  • What is this poem asking you to release or embrace?

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