Hafez · The preachers in the pulpit
واعظان کاین جلوه در محراب و منبر می کنندچون به خلوت می روند آن کار دیگر می کنند
مشکلی دارم ز دانشمند مجلس بازپرستوبه فرمایان چرا خود توبه کمتر می کنند
گوییا باور نمی دارند روز داوریکاین همه قلب و دغل در کار داور می کنند
یا رب این نودولتان را با خر خودشان نشانکاین همه ناز از غلام ترک و استر می کنند
ای گدای خانقه برجه که در دیر مغانمی دهند آبی که دل‌ها را توانگر می کنند
حسن بی پایان او چندان که عاشق می کشدزمره دیگر به عشق از غیب سر بر می کنند
بر در میخانه عشق ای ملک تسبیح گویکاندر آن جا طینت آدم مخمر می کنند
صبحدم از عرش می آمد خروشی عقل گفتقدسیان گویی که شعر حافظ از بر می کنند
Hafez turns a sharp eye on those whose public face differs from their private one, and on people newly risen who mistake possessions for worth. Perhaps you are troubled by someone's show of virtue, or are weighing their advice against their deeds. The poem invites you not to be ruled by appearances, and gently asks you to look at your own heart too. Leave the lodge of empty forms and seek the water that makes the heart rich: sincerity and love. Where the clay of Adam is kneaded with love, true worth is made. Speak honestly and your words will carry further than you know.
The preachers who make this show in the mihrab and pulpit,
when they go into private, do that other thing.
I have a question — ask the learned man of the assembly:
why do those who order repentance repent so little themselves?
It seems they do not believe in the Day of Judgement,
that they practise all this counterfeit and fraud in the Judge's affairs.
O Lord, set these upstarts back upon their own donkeys,
for they put on all these airs over a Turkish slave and a mule.
Beggar of the Sufi lodge, rise up, for in the monastery of the magi
they give a water that makes hearts rich.
However many lovers that endless beauty slays,
another company rises up from the Unseen, in love.
At the door of love's tavern, angel, sing your praises,
for in there they are kneading the clay of Adam.
At dawn a clamour came down from the Throne; Reason said,
"It seems the holy ones are learning Hafez's verse by heart."