Hafez · Ghazal 307 · Every word I spoke in her praise
هر نکته‌ای که گفتم در وصف آن شمایلهر کو شنید گفتا «لله در قائل»
تحصیل عشق و رندی آسان نمود اولآخر بسوخت جانم در کسب این فضایل
حلاج بر سر دار این نکته خوش سراید«از شافعی نپرسند امثال این مسائل»
گفتم که «کی ببخشی بر جان ناتوانم؟»گفت «آن زمان که نبود جان در میانه حائل»
دل داده‌ام به یاری، شوخی، کشی، نگاریمرضیة السجایا محمودة الخصائل
در عین گوشه‌گیری بودم چو چشم مستتو اکنون شدم به مستان چون ابروی تو مایل
از آب دیده صد ره طوفان نوح دیدموز لوح سینه نقشت هرگز نگشت زایل
ای دوست دست حافظ تعویذ چشم زخم استیا رب ببینم آن را در گردنت حمایل
Love seemed easy at the start, Hafez admits, and only later did he learn what it asks. If what you are pursuing has become harder than you expected, take comfort: that is the ordinary way of deep things. The beloved's answer to his plea is the key to this ghazal: mercy comes when the self no longer stands in the way. Hold your image of what you love steady, as Hafez does through a hundred floods of tears. Some truths cannot be settled by rules; they are learned by the heart.
Every subtle word I spoke in praise of that form,
whoever heard it said, "God bless the speaker!"
The study of love and rendi seemed easy at first;
in the end my soul burned in acquiring these virtues.
Hallaj on the gallows sings this truth sweetly:
"Questions like these are not asked of Shafi'i."
I said, "When will you have mercy on my feeble soul?"
She said, "When the soul no longer stands between us as a barrier."
I have given my heart to a friend, playful, charming, a beauty,
pleasing in her nature and praised for her qualities.
I kept to my corner, like your drunken eye;
now, like your eyebrow, I lean towards the drunken.
From the water of my eyes I have seen Noah's flood a hundred times,
yet your image has never faded from the tablet of my breast.
O friend, the hand of Hafez is an amulet against the evil eye;
O Lord, may I see it hung around your neck.