Hafez · Bitter wine to fell a man
شراب تلخ می خواهم که مردافکن بود زورشکه تا یک دم بیاسایم ز دنیا و شر و شورش
سماط دهر دون پرور ندارد شهد آسایشمذاق حرص و آز ای دل بشو از تلخ و از شورش
بیاور می که نتوان شد ز مکر آسمان ایمنبه لعب زهره چنگی و مریخ سلحشورش
کمند صید بهرامی بیفکن جام جم بردارکه من پیمودم این صحرا نه بهرام است و نه گورش
بیا تا در می صافیت راز دهر بنمایمبه شرط آن که ننمایی به کج طبعان دل کورش
نظر کردن به درویشان منافی بزرگی نیستسلیمان با چنان حشمت نظرها بود با مورش
کمان ابروی جانان نمی پیچد سر از حافظولیکن خنده می آید بدین بازوی بی زورش
Hafez is weary of the world's noise and of chasing what does not satisfy. He says the banquet of this age holds no honey of ease for greed, and that even the great hunter Bahram ended in the grave he hunted. You may be tired from striving, or from trying to secure what cannot be secured. Put down the lasso and lift the cup of clear seeing: rest, and look again at what truly matters. Treat the small and humble with kindness, as Solomon did the ant. Your strength may feel slight, but the beloved has not turned away from you.
I want a bitter wine whose strength can throw a man,
so that for one moment I may rest from the world, its evil and its uproar.
The table of this base-rearing age holds no honey of ease;
O heart, wash the palate of greed and craving clean of its bitter and its salt.
Bring wine, for none can be safe from the sky's cunning,
from the play of Venus the harpist and its warrior Mars.
Throw down the lasso of Bahram's hunt, take up the cup of Jamshid,
for I have crossed this plain: here is neither Bahram nor his wild ass.
Come, and in pure wine I will show you the secret of the age,
on condition you do not show it to the crooked of nature, blind of heart.
To look kindly on dervishes is no contradiction of greatness:
Solomon, for all his majesty, had regard for the ant.
The beloved's bow of a brow does not turn its head from Hafez,
but it laughs at this strengthless arm of his.