Hafez · Ghazal 428 · At dawn, with harp and lute
سحرگاهان، که مخمور شبانهگرفتم باده با چنگ و چغانه
نهادم عقل را ره توشه از می،ز شهر هستی‌اش کردم روانه
نگار می‌فروشم عشوه‌ای داد،که ایمن گشتم از مکر زمانه
ز ساقی کمان ابرو شنیدم؛که ای تیر ملامت را نشانه!
نبندی زان میان طرفی، کمروار،اگر خود را ببینی در میانه
برو، این دام بر مرغی دگر نهکه عنقا را بلند است آشیانه!
که بندد طرف وصل از حسن شاهی؟که با خود عشق بازد جاودانه؟
ندیم و مطرب و ساقی، همه اوست؛خیال آب و گل در ره، بهانه
بده کشتی می تا خوش برانیم،از این دریای ناپیداکرانه
وجود ما معمایی‌ست، حافظ؛که تحقیقش، فسون است و فسانه
You may be trying very hard to grasp something, and Hafez offers a quiet secret: as long as you see yourself in the middle, you will not hold it. The highest things nest out of reach of snares. Rather than straining to solve the riddle of your life, let yourself be carried, like a boat on a sea whose shores you cannot see. Set your self-concern aside for a while. The friend, the music and the wine are all one, and they are already near.
At dawn, still heavy with the night's wine,
I took up the cup with the harp and the lute.
I gave reason wine as provision for the road
and sent it off from the city of being.
My wine-selling beloved gave me a glance
that made me safe from the cunning of the age.
I heard the bow-browed saqi say,
"O you, the target of the arrow of blame,
like a belt, you will win nothing from that waist
if you see yourself in the middle.
Go, set this snare for some other bird,
for the nest of the Simurgh is high."
Who can win union with the beauty of a king
who plays at love with himself forever?
Companion, minstrel and saqi: all of them are He;
the fancy of water and clay along the way is a pretext.
Give us the ship of wine so that we may sail happily
across this sea whose shores cannot be seen.
Our existence is a riddle, Hafez,
and to probe it is only charm and fable.