Hafez · Ghazal 353 · I will not give up love
من ترک عشق شاهد و ساغر نمی‌کنمصد بار توبه کردم و دیگر نمی‌کنم
باغ بهشت و سایه طوبی و قصر و حوربا خاک کوی دوست برابر نمی‌کنم
تلقین و درس اهل نظر یک اشارت استگفتم کنایتی و مکرر نمی‌کنم
هرگز نمی‌شود ز سر خود خبر مراتا در میان میکده سر بر نمی‌کنم
ناصح به طعن گفت که «رو ترک عشق کن»محتاج جنگ نیست برادر، نمی‌کنم
این تقوی‌ام تمام، که با شاهدان شهرناز و کرشمه بر سر منبر نمی‌کنم
حافظ! جناب پیر مغان جای دولت استمن ترک خاک‌بوسی این در نمی‌کنم
Hafez is calm and certain in this ghazal. He has tried, a hundred times, to give up what he loves, and he will not try again. If you have been told to abandon something that is truly dear to you, the verse supports your quiet refusal; there is no need to fight about it. Know what is worth more to you than paradise, stay by that door, and do not perform virtues you do not feel. A single hint is enough for those who understand.
I will not give up my love of the beauty and the cup;
a hundred times I have repented, and I will not do it again.
The garden of paradise, the shade of the Tuba tree, the palace and the houris,
I do not count them equal to the dust of the Friend's lane.
The teaching and the lesson of those with insight is a single hint;
I have spoken an allusion, and I will not repeat it.
I never come to know my own self
until I raise my head in the middle of the tavern.
The counsellor said with a sneer, "Go, give up love."
There is no need to fight, brother: I will not.
This is the whole of my piety: that with the beauties of the city
I do not play the coquette from the top of the pulpit.
Hafez, the court of the Magian elder is the seat of fortune;
I will not give up kissing the dust of this door.