Hafez · Ghazal 299 · Pour a sip upon the earth
اگر شراب خوری جرعه‌ای فشان بر خاکاز آن گناه که نفعی رسد به غیر، چه باک؟
برو به هر چه تو داری بخور، دریغ مخورکه بی‌دریغ زند روزگار تیغ هلاک
به خاک پای تو ای سرو نازپرور منکه روز واقعه پا وا مگیرم از سر خاک
چه دوزخی، چه بهشتی، چه آدمی، چه پریبه مذهب همه کفر طریقت است امساک
مهندس فلکی، راه دیر شش جهتیچنان ببست که ره نیست زیر دیر مغاک
فریب دختر رز طرفه می‌زند ره عقلمباد تا به قیامت خراب طارم تاک
به راه میکده، حافظ! خوش از جهان رفتیدعای اهل دلت باد، مونس دل پاک
This ghazal is about generosity. Pour a little of your cup upon the earth, Hafez says; there is no harm in a gift that does another good. Enjoy what you have without stinting, because time itself is not sparing with its blows. Holding back, in every creed, is the real fault. If your question is about whether to give, to share or to open your hand, the answer here is warm: be generous with yourself and with others. What you share does not diminish you; it goes with you.
If you drink wine, pour a sip upon the earth;
why fear a sin from which some good reaches another?
Go, enjoy whatever you have, and do not stint or grieve,
for time strikes with its deadly sword and does not stint.
By the dust of your feet, O my tenderly raised cypress,
on the day of my death do not withhold your steps from my grave.
Whether of hell or heaven, human or fairy,
in the creed of all, holding back is unbelief on the Path.
The engineer of the heavens has so closed the ways of this six-sided cloister
that beneath this cloister, deep as a pit, there is no way out.
The daughter of the vine waylays reason with marvellous charm;
may the vine's trellis not fall to ruin until the Resurrection.
On the road to the tavern, Hafez, you left the world happily;
may the prayer of the people of heart be your pure heart's companion.