Hafez · Ghazal 155 · If I follow her
اگر روم ز پی‌اش فتنه‌ها برانگیزدور از طلب بنشینم به کینه برخیزد
و گر به رهگذری یک دم از وفاداریچو گرد در پی‌اش افتم چو باد بگریزد
و گر کنم طلب نیم بوسه صد افسوسز حقه دهنش چون شکر فرو ریزد
من آن فریب که در نرگس تو می‌بینمبس آبروی که با خاک ره برآمیزد
فراز و شیب بیابان عشق، دام بلاستکجاست شیردلی کز بلا نپرهیزد
تو عمر خواه و صبوری که چرخ شعبده بازهزار بازی از این طرفه‌تر برانگیزد
بر آستانه تسلیم سر بنه حافظکه گر ستیزه کنی، روزگار بستیزد
Whatever you do in this matter seems to bring the opposite of what you hoped: pursue it and it resists, step back and it complains. Hafez has been here, and his counsel is clear. Ask for long life and patience, for the turning world has many stranger games ahead, and this one too will pass. Do not fight the times, because a quarrel only draws a quarrel back. Lay your head on the threshold of surrender, and let calm do what effort cannot.
If I go after her, she stirs up turmoil;
and if I give up seeking, she rises up in anger.
And if, on some road, for a moment, out of faithfulness
I fall in behind her like dust, she flies off like the wind.
And if I ask for half a kiss, a hundred regrets
pour like sugar from the casket of her mouth.
That deceit I see in your narcissus eye,
how much honour it mingles with the dust of the road!
The ups and downs of love's desert are a snare of trials;
where is a lion-hearted one who does not shy away from trials?
Ask for long life and patience, for the conjuring wheel
will stir up a thousand games stranger than this.
Lay your head on the threshold of surrender, Hafez,
for if you quarrel, the times will quarrel back.