How Long This Greed?
Obeyd Zakaniعبید زاکانی
عبید این حرص مال و جاه تاکی
Obeyd, how long this greed for wealth and rank?
جهان فانیست رو ترک جهان گیر
The world is passing: go, take leave of the world.
چو مردان دامن از دنیا بیفشان
Like true men, shake the dust of the world from your skirt,
وزین گرداب خود را بر کران گیر
and pull yourself out of this whirlpool to the shore.
ز مسجد رخت بر کوی مغان کش
Carry your belongings from the mosque to the street of the Magians,
سرا در کوی صاحب دولتان گیر
and make your home in the street of the fortunate.
A note for readers
A short poem of three couplets addressed by the poet to himself. Leaving the mosque for the ‘street of the Magians’, the tavern quarter, is a stock gesture of Persian lyric poetry, used to mock outward piety. Obeyd lived in Shiraz in the time of Hafez, and the two share much of this vocabulary.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
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
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
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.