Hafez · Ghazal 14 · Have mercy on this stranger
گفتم ای سلطان خوبان رحم کن بر این غریبگفت در دنبال دل، ره گم کند مسکین غریب
گفتمش مگذر زمانی، گفت معذورم بدارخانه پروردی چه تاب آرد غم چندین غریب
خفته بر سنجاب شاهی نازنینی را چه غم؟گر ز خار و خاره سازد بستر و بالین غریب
ای که در زنجیر زلفت جای چندین آشناستخوش فتاد آن خال مشکین بر رخ رنگین غریب
می‌نماید عکس می، در رنگ روی مه وشتهمچو برگ ارغوان بر صفحه نسرین، غریب
بس غریب افتاده است آن مور خط، گرد رختگرچه نبود در نگارستان، خط مشکین غریب
گفتم ای شام غریبان طره شبرنگ تودر سحرگاهان حذر کن چون بنالد این غریب
گفت حافظ آشنایان در مقام حیرتنددور نبود گر نشیند خسته و مسکین غریب
You may feel like a stranger just now, outside a circle you long to enter, or unsure of the road. Hafez speaks his need plainly, and the answer he receives is honest and kind in its way: even those who know the way stand bewildered here. You are not alone in not understanding. Do not lose your bearings by following every pull of the heart, and do not be ashamed of being new. A dark mole looks lovely on a bright cheek precisely because it stands apart; your difference may be part of your beauty.
I said: "O sultan of the fair, have mercy on this stranger."
She said: "Following the heart, the poor stranger loses his way."
I said: "Stay a moment." She said: "Hold me excused:
how can one raised at home bear the grief of so many strangers?"
What care has a darling asleep on royal sable
if the stranger makes his bed and pillow of thorn and stone?
O you in the chain of whose curl so many friends have their place,
how lovely that musky mole has fallen on your bright cheek, a stranger there.
The reflection of wine in the colour of your moonlike face
shows like a Judas-tree petal on a page of white roses, strange.
Most strange has that ant-line of down fallen around your cheek,
though in a gallery of paintings a musky line is nothing strange.
I said: "O curl of yours, dark as the evening of exiles,
beware at dawn, when this stranger cries out."
She said: "Hafez, even those who know the way stand here bewildered;
it is no wonder if the stranger sits weary and poor."