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Persiahaus

Qasida · 11th–12th centuryDraft

Do Not Make Your Home in Body or Soul

Sanaiسنایی

مکن در جسم و جان منزل، که این دونست و آن والا

Do not make your home in body or soul: this one is low, that one high;

قدم زین هر دو بیرون نه نه آنجا باش و نه اینجا

step out beyond them both; be neither there nor here.

بهرچ از راه دور افتی چه کفر آن حرف و چه ایمان

Whatever makes you stray from the road, unbelief or faith, it is all one;

بهرچ از دوست وا مانی چه زشت آن نقش و چه زیبا

whatever keeps you from the Friend, ugly or beautiful, it is all one.

گواه رهرو آن باشد که سردش یابی از دوزخ

The witness of the true traveller is that you find him cool in hell;

نشان عاشق آن باشد که خشکش بینی از دریا

the sign of the lover is that you see him dry in the sea.

نبود از خواری آدم که خالی گشت ازو جنت

It was not through Adam’s baseness that paradise was emptied of him,

نبود از عاجزی وامق که عذرا ماند ازو عذرا

nor through Vamiq’s weakness that Azra was left untouched by him.

سخن کز روی دین گویی چه عبرانی چه سریانی

Words you speak for the sake of faith: what matter, Hebrew or Syriac?

مکان کز بهر حق جویی چه جابلقا چه جابلسا

A place you seek for the sake of God: what matter, Jabulqa or Jabulsa?

Translation
Persiahaus Editors [Draft translation]
Source
New translation

A note for readers

The opening of one of Sanai’s celebrated qasidas, a sermon in verse urging the seeker to leave behind both the body and the self. Vamiq and Azra are a pair of lovers from an old romance, and Jabulqa and Jabulsa legendary cities at the eastern and western edges of the world. The excerpt gives the first five couplets of a long poem.

More poemsشعرهای دیگر

Single couplet · 17th centuryDraft

یک عمر می‌توان سخن از زلف یار گفت

در بند آن مباش که مضمون نمانده است

One could speak for a lifetime of the beloved’s tresses;

do not fret that there are no themes left.

A Lifetime on the Beloved’s Tresses

Saeb Tabrizi · صائب تبریزی

Ghazal · 14th centuryDraft

بلبلی برگ گلی خوش رنگ در منقار داشت

و اندر آن برگ و نوا خوش ناله‌های زار داشت

A nightingale held in its beak a rose petal of lovely colour,

and with that petal and its song it made sweet, piteous laments.

A nightingale held a rose petal

Hafez · حافظ

Ghazal · 14th centuryDraft

ستاره ای بدرخشید و ماه مجلس شد

دل رمیده ما را رفیق و مونس شد

A star shone out and became the moon of the gathering,

became friend and companion to our startled heart.

A star shone out

Hafez · حافظ