Hafez · Ghazal 294 · Like the candle
در وفای عشق تو، مشهور خوبانم چو شمعشب‌نشین کوی سربازان و رندانم چو شمع
روز و شب خوابم نمی‌آید به چشم غم‌پرستبس که در بیماری هجر تو گریانم چو شمع
رشته صبرم به مقراض غمت ببریده شدهمچنان در آتش مهر تو سوزانم چو شمع
گر کمیت اشک گلگونم نبودی گرم‌روکی شدی روشن به گیتی راز پنهانم چو شمع؟
در میان آب و آتش همچنان سرگرم توستاین دل زار نزار اشک‌بارانم چو شمع
در شب هجران، مرا پروانه وصلی فرستور نه از دردت جهانی را بسوزانم چو شمع
بی جمال عالم‌آرای تو روزم چون شب استبا کمال عشق تو در عین نقصانم چو شمع
کوه صبرم نرم شد چون موم در دست غمتتا در آب و آتش عشقت گدازانم چو شمع
همچو صبحم یک نفس باقی‌ست با دیدار توچهره بنما دلبرا تا جان برافشانم چو شمع
سرفرازم کن شبی از وصل خود ای نازنینتا منور گردد از دیدارت ایوانم چو شمع
آتش مهر تو را حافظ عجب در سر گرفتآتش دل، کی به آب دیده بنشانم چو شمع؟
Every couplet here ends with the candle, which burns, weeps and gives light all at once. Hafez sees his love that way: it costs him, yet it makes his hidden heart shine for all to see. If you are giving a great deal of yourself to someone or something, this ghazal honours that faithfulness. It also asks, gently, for a sign of welcome in the long night. Keep your light steady and true; what you have given has not been wasted, and the dawn you are waiting for is close.
In faithfulness to your love I am famous among the beautiful, like the candle;
I sit up all night in the lane of those who stake their heads, and of the rends, like the candle.
Day and night no sleep comes to my sorrow-loving eyes,
so much do I weep in the sickness of your absence, like the candle.
The thread of my patience has been cut by the scissors of your sorrow,
yet still I burn in the fire of your love, like the candle.
If the steed of my rose-red tears had not run so hotly,
how would my hidden secret have shone out to the world, like the candle?
Between water and fire, this weak and wretched heart of mine, raining tears,
is still aflame with you, like the candle.
In the night of separation, send me a moth of union,
or else, from the pain of you, I will set a world on fire, like the candle.
Without your world-adorning beauty my day is like the night;
with the perfection of your love I am in the very midst of waning, like the candle.
The mountain of my patience has grown soft as wax in the hand of your sorrow,
since I am melting in the water and fire of your love, like the candle.
Like the dawn, I have one breath left in which to see you;
show your face, beloved, so that I may scatter my life, like the candle.
Raise me high one night with union, O gracious one,
so that my hall may be lit by the sight of you, as by a candle.
The fire of your love has caught strangely in Hafez's head;
how could I quench the heart's fire with the water of my eyes, like the candle?