Hafez · Ghazal 442 · By her life
به جان او که گرم دسترس به جان بودیکمینه پیشکش بندگانش آن بودی
بگفتمی که «بها چیست خاک پایش را؟»اگر حیات گران مایه جاودان بودی
به بندگی قدش سرو معترف گشتیگرش چو سوسن آزاده ده زبان بودی
به خواب نیز نمی‌بینمش چه جای وصالچو این نبود و ندیدیم باری آن بودی
اگر دلم نشدی پایبند طره اوکی‌اش قرار در این تیره‌خاکدان بودی؟
به رخ چو مهر فلک بی‌نظیر آفاق استبه دل دریغ که یک ذره مهربان بودی
درآمدی ز درم کاشکی چو لمعه نورکه بر دو دیده ما حکم او روان بودی
ز پرده ناله حافظ برون کی افتادی؟اگر نه همدم مرغان صبح خوان بودی
You may feel that you have given a great deal and received little in return, not even a dream of what you long for. Hafez feels this too. And yet he says something important: it is his love that makes this dark world bearable at all. Your devotion is not wasted; it keeps you rooted. Rise early, like the birds that sing at dawn, and let your feeling find its voice. A gleam of light may yet come through your door.
By her life, if my life were mine to give,
it would be the least gift I could offer her servants.
I would say what the dust of her feet is worth,
if precious life lasted forever.
The cypress would confess itself the servant of her stature,
if, like the free lily, it had ten tongues.
I do not see her even in dreams, let alone in union;
since union was not to be, if only there could be the dream.
If my heart had not been tied to her lock,
how could it ever have rested in this dark heap of dust?
In face, like the sun in the sky, she has no equal in the world;
in heart, alas, if only she had one speck of kindness.
If only she would come through my door like a gleam of light,
so that her command could run over both our eyes.
When would Hafez's lament have come out from behind the veil,
if he had not been the companion of the birds who sing at dawn?