Ghazal · 13th century

I Am Drunk on the Wine of Love

Fakhr al-Din Iraqiعراقی

من مست می عشقم هشیار نخواهم شد

I am drunk on the wine of love; I will not become sober;

وز خواب خوش مستی بیدار نخواهم شد

from the sweet sleep of drunkenness I will not wake.

امروز چنان مستم از باده دوشینه

Today I am so drunk from last night’s wine

تا روز قیامت هم هشیار نخواهم شد

that even till the Day of Resurrection I will not be sober.

تا هست ز نیک و بد در کیسه من نقدی

As long as my purse holds any coin of good or bad,

در کوی جوانمردان عیار نخواهم شد

I will not pass for a free companion in the lane of the chivalrous.

آن رفت که می‌رفتم در صومعه هر باری

Gone are the days when I would go each time to the cloister;

جز بر در میخانه این بار نخواهم شد

this time I will go nowhere but to the tavern door.

از توبه و قرایی بیزار شدم، لیکن

I have had enough of repentance and pious recitation, but

از رندی و قلاشی بیزار نخواهم شد

I will never have enough of being a rogue and a vagabond.

از دوست به هر خشمی آزرده نخواهم گشت

I will not be hurt by every anger of the Friend,

وز یار به هر زخمی افگار نخواهم شد

nor wounded by every blow from the beloved.

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

A note for readers

A ghazal in the qalandari manner, in which the speaker leaves the cloister and pious recitation for the tavern and the life of the rend, the free-spirited rogue of Persian poetry. Drunkenness stands for being lost in love, from which the poet vows never to recover. The excerpt gives the first six of ten couplets.