Hafez · Ghazal 161 · How can a grieving mind make fresh verse?
کی شعر تر انگیزد خاطر که حزین باشدیک نکته از این معنی گفتیم و همین باشد
از لعل تو گر یابم انگشتری زنهارصد ملک سلیمانم در زیر نگین باشد
غمناک نباید بود از طعن حسود ای دلشاید که چو وابینی خیر تو در این باشد
هر کو نکند فهمی زین کلک خیال‌انگیزنقشش به حرام ار خود صورتگر چین باشد
جام می و خون دل هر یک به کسی دادنددر دایره قسمت اوضاع چنین باشد
در کار گلاب و گل حکم ازلی این بودکاین شاهد بازاری وآن پرده‌نشین باشد
آن نیست که حافظ را رندی بشد از خاطرکه‌این سابقه پیشین تا روز پسین باشد
Someone's criticism or envy may be weighing on you, and a heavy heart finds it hard to create anything fresh. Hafez tells you not to grieve at the taunts of others: look again, and you may find your good hidden inside the very thing that hurt. Each of us is given a different share, one the cup of wine, another the heart's blood, one the open market, another the quiet veil. Accept your own share without comparison, keep faith with your true nature, and let a lighter heart return to its work.
How can a mind that is grieving stir up fresh verse?
We have said one subtle point on this, and let that be all.
If I could win from your ruby lip a signet ring of safe-keeping,
a hundred kingdoms of Solomon would lie beneath my seal.
O heart, you must not grieve at the taunts of the envious;
it may be, when you look again, that your good lies in this.
Whoever cannot grasp this image-making pen,
let his own painting be unlawful, though he be the painter of China.
The cup of wine and the heart's blood were each given to someone;
in the circle of allotment, this is how things are.
In the matter of rosewater and the rose, the first decree was this:
that one be a beauty of the bazaar, and the other stay behind the veil.
It is not that rendi has slipped from the mind of Hafez:
this first habit will last until the final day.