Hafez · Ghazal 483 · A traveller at dawn
سحرگه ره روی در سرزمینیهمی گفت این معما با قرینی
که ای صوفی شراب آن گه شود صافکه در شیشه برآرد اربعینی
خدا زان خرقه بیزار است صد بارکه صد بت باشدش در آستینی
مروت گر چه نامی بی‌نشان استنیازی عرضه کن بر نازنینی
ثوابت باشد ای دارای خرمناگر رحمی کنی بر خوشه‌چینی
نمی‌بینم نشاط عیش در کسنه درمان دلی نه درد دینی
درون‌ها تیره شد باشد که از غیبچراغی برکند خلوت‌نشینی
گر انگشت سلیمانی نباشدچه خاصیت دهد نقش نگینی؟
اگر چه رسم خوبان تندخویی‌ستچه باشد گر بسازد با غمینی؟
ره میخانه بنما تا بپرسممآل خویش را از پیش‌بینی
نه حافظ را حضور درس خلوتنه دانشمند را علم الیقینی
The riddle at the heart of this ghazal is about time: wine becomes clear only after its forty days in the flask. Something in your life may still be settling, and it will become clear in its own season. Meanwhile Hafez counsels kindness and honesty: share from your harvest with those who have little, ask for what you need without shame, and let your outward show match your inner life. Even when hearts seem dark, a lamp may be lit from somewhere unexpected. Let what is cloudy settle; clarity will come.
At dawn a traveller in some land
was telling this riddle to a companion:
"O Sufi, the wine becomes clear only
when it has spent its forty days in the flask."
God is a hundred times weary of that cloak
which keeps a hundred idols in its sleeve.
Though generosity is a name that has left no trace,
offer your need to some gracious one.
You will have your reward, O owner of the harvest,
if you show mercy to a gleaner.
I see no delight of joy in anyone,
no cure for the heart, no ache for faith.
Hearts have grown dark; perhaps from the Unseen
some recluse will light a lamp.
If there is no finger of Solomon,
what power does the engraving on a seal-stone give?
Though harshness is the custom of the beautiful,
what harm if one should be kind to someone grieving?
Show me the way to the tavern, so that I may ask
one who sees ahead about how things will end for me.
Hafez has no presence of mind for the lessons of seclusion,
nor has the scholar the knowledge of certainty.