Hafez · Ghazal 110 · In old age, a young love
پیرانه سرم عشق جوانی به سر افتادوآن راز که در دل بنهفتم به درافتاد
از راه نظر مرغ دلم گشت هواگیرای دیده نگه کن که به دام که درافتاد
دردا که از آن آهوی مشکین سیه چشمچون نافه بسی خون دلم در جگر افتاد
از رهگذر خاک سر کوی شما بودهر نافه که در دست نسیم سحر افتاد
مژگان تو تا تیغ جهانگیر برآوردبس کشته دل زنده که بر یکدگر افتاد
بس تجربه کردیم در این دیر مکافاتبا دردکشان هر که درافتاد برافتاد
گر جان بدهد سنگ سیه، لعل نگرددبا طینت اصلی چه کند، بدگهر افتاد
حافظ که سر زلف بتان دست‌کشش بودبس طرفه حریفی‌ست کش اکنون به سر افتاد
A feeling you thought belonged to younger days has stirred again, and something you kept secret is coming into the open. Hafez does not scold the heart for this; he only asks the eye to look carefully at whose snare it is flying towards. He also observes that a thing's true nature shows in time: a stone does not become a ruby by suffering, and what is genuine in you will remain. Do not try to be what you are not. Let what is real in your heart be seen, and meet it with humility.
Now that my head is old, a young man's love has come into it,
and the secret I hid in my heart has come out into the open.
By way of the eye, the bird of my heart took to the air;
look, O eye, and see whose snare it has fallen into.
Alas, because of that musky, dark-eyed gazelle,
like the musk-pod, much of my heart's blood has pooled within me.
It came from passing over the dust at the head of your lane,
every musk-pod that ever fell into the hand of the dawn breeze.
As soon as your lashes drew the world-conquering sword,
how many slain with living hearts fell one upon another!
We have tried it often in this monastery of retribution:
whoever grappled with the dreg-drinkers was overthrown.
Though the black stone gives up its life, it will not become a ruby;
what can it do against its nature? It was born of base stock.
Hafez, whose hand once played with the tips of idols' curls,
has met a remarkable rival who now has the upper hand over him.