Hafez · Ghazal 199 · The preachers in the pulpit
واعظان کاین جلوه در محراب و منبر می‌کنندچون به خلوت می‌روند آن کار دیگر می‌کنند!
مشکلی دارم، ز دانشمند مجلس بازپرستوبه‌فرمایان، چرا خود توبه کم‌تر می‌کنند؟
گوییا باور نمی‌دارند روز داوریکاین همه قلب و دغل در کار داور می‌کنند
یا رب این نودولتان را با خر خودشان نشانکاین همه ناز از غلام ترک و استر می‌کنند
ای گدای خانقه، برجه که در دیر مغانمی‌دهند آبی و دل‌ها را توانگر می‌کنند
حسن بی‌پایان او، چندان که عاشق می‌کشدزمره دیگر به عشق از غیب سر بر می‌کنند
بر در می‌خانه عشق ای ملک، تسبیح گویکاندر آنجا، طینت آدم مخمر می‌کنند
صبح‌دم از عرش می‌آمد خروشی، عقل گفت«قدسیان گویی که شعر حافظ از بر می‌کنند»
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."