Hafez · Ghazal 378 · We do not speak ill
ما نگوییم بد و میل به ناحق نکنیمجامه کس سیه و دلق خود ازرق نکنیم
عیب درویش و توانگر به کم و بیش بد استکار بد مصلحت آن است که مطلق نکنیم
رقم مغلطه بر دفتر دانش نزنیمسر حق بر ورق شعبده ملحق نکنیم
شاه اگر جرعه رندان نه به حرمت نوشدالتفاتش به می صاف مروق نکنیم
خوش برانیم جهان در نظر راهروانفکر اسب سیه و زین مغرق نکنیم
آسمان کشتی ارباب هنر می‌شکندتکیه آن به که بر این بحر معلق نکنیم
گر بدی گفت حسودی و رفیقی رنجیدگو «تو خوش باش که ما گوش به احمق نکنیم»
حافظ ار خصم خطا گفت، نگیریم بر اوور به حق گفت، جدل با سخن حق نکنیم
This is a ghazal of quiet integrity. Hafez sets out a simple way to live: speak no ill, take no unjust side, make no show of piety, and never mix truth with tricks. If someone envious has spoken against you, or a friend has been hurt by gossip, his advice is calm: do not give it your ear. And when criticism comes, take what is true in it without argument, and let the rest go without a grudge. Travel lightly through the world, leaning neither on fine saddles nor on fortune's uncertain sea.
We do not speak ill, nor lean towards what is unjust;
we do not blacken anyone's garment, nor dye our own cloak blue.
Faults in poor and rich, great or small, are bad;
the wise course is that we do no bad deed at all.
We do not write the mark of deceit in the book of knowledge,
nor bind the secret of truth into a page of trickery.
If the king does not drink the rendan's draught with respect,
we will not offer him the clear, strained wine.
Let us ride gladly through the world in the eyes of the wayfarers,
and give no thought to the black horse and the gold-studded saddle.
The sky shatters the ship of the gifted;
better not to lean upon this hanging sea.
If an envious man spoke ill and a friend was hurt,
tell him: “Be at ease, for we do not listen to fools.”
Hafez, if an opponent spoke in error, we will not hold it against him,
and if he spoke the truth, we will not quarrel with the truth.