Ghazal · 17th–18th century

After Us, Neither Ghazal nor Qasida

Bidel Dehlaviبیدل دهلوی

ز بعد ما نه غزل نی قصیده می‌ماند

After us neither ghazal nor qasida will remain;

ز خامه‌ها دو سه اشک چکیده می‌ماند

of our pens, two or three fallen tears will remain.

چمن به خاطر وحشت رسیده می‌ماند

The meadow is like a heart that panic has reached;

بساط غنچه به دامان چیده می‌ماند

the bud’s spread is like a skirt gathered up to go.

ثبات عیش‌ که دارد که چون پر طاووس

Who has lasting joy? Like a peacock’s feather,

جهان به شوخی رنگ پریده می‌ماند

the world is like the bright play of a colour that has fled.

شرار ثابت و سیاره دام فرصت ‌کیست

Whose snare for a passing moment are the sparks of the stars and planets?

فلک به‌ کاغذ آتش رسیده می‌ماند

The sky is like paper that the fire has reached.

کجا بریم غبار جنون‌که صحرا هم

Where shall we take the dust of our madness, when the desert too,

ز گردباد به دامان چیده می‌ماند

with its whirlwinds, is like a skirt gathered up to go?

From: The Divan of Bidel
Translation: Persiahaus Editors
Source: Draft translation from the Ganjoor text
Persian text: Ganjoor

A note for readers

The opening of a ghazal on transience whose refrain, mi-manad, means both ‘remains’ and ‘resembles’. Bidel uses the first sense in the opening couplet, where all that will remain of poets is a few tears from their pens, and the second in the couplets that follow, comparing the world to a peacock’s fading colours and the starry sky to paper caught by fire, its sparks running across it.