Hafez · Ghazal 335 · If my way leads to the tavern again
در خرابات مغان گر گذر افتد بازمحاصل خرقه و سجاده، روان دربازم
حلقه توبه گر امروز چو زهاد زنمخازن میکده فردا نکند در، بازم
ور چو پروانه دهد دست، فراغ بالیجز بدان عارض شمعی نبود پروازم
صحبت حور نخواهم که بود عین قصوربا خیال تو اگر با دگری پردازم
سر سودای تو در سینه بماندی پنهانچشم تر دامن اگر فاش نکردی رازم
مرغ سان از قفس خاک هوایی گشتمبه هوایی که مگر صید کند شهبازم
همچو چنگ ار به کناری ندهی کام دلماز لب خویش چو نی یک نفسی بنوازم
ماجرای دل خون گشته نگویم با کسزان که جز تیغ غمت نیست کسی دمسازم
گر به هر موی، سری بر تن حافظ باشدهمچو زلفت همه را در قدمت اندازم
This ghazal is about wholeheartedness. Hafez will not split his loyalties or put on a show of repentance he does not mean; like the moth, he flies only to the one candle. If you have been divided between what is expected of you and what you truly love, the verse invites you to choose the true thing and stop pretending. Your feelings may already show in your eyes. Let them. A single breath of real closeness is worth more than a cloak of appearances.
If my way leads once more to the tavern of the Magians,
I will gamble away at once the earnings of cloak and prayer-mat.
If today, like the ascetics, I knock at the ring of repentance,
tomorrow the tavern's keeper will not open the door to me.
And if, like the moth, I am granted freedom of wing,
I will fly nowhere but to that candle of a cheek.
I do not want the company of houris; it would be pure failing
if, with your image in me, I turned to anyone else.
The secret of my passion for you would have stayed hidden in my breast
if my wet-hemmed eye had not given it away.
Like a bird I have flown up from the cage of dust,
in the hope that the royal falcon will make me its prey.
If, like a harp, you will not grant my heart's wish in your embrace,
then from your lip, like a reed, play me for a single breath.
I will not tell anyone the story of my bloodied heart,
for I have no companion but the sword of your grief.
If Hafez had a head on his body for every hair,
like your curls I would cast them all at your feet.