I dreamed a cup was in my hand

دیدم به خواب خوش که به دستم پیاله بود

I dreamed a sweet dream: a cup was in my hand;

تعبیر رفت و کار به دولت حواله بود

its meaning came, and my affairs were placed in the hands of fortune.

چل سال رنج و غصه کشیدیم و عاقبت

Forty years we bore toil and sorrow, and in the end

تدبیر ما به دست شراب دوساله بود

our remedy lay in the hand of two-year-old wine.

آن نافه مراد که می‌خواستم ز بخت

That musk-pod of my desire which I begged of fortune

در چین زلف آن بت مشکین کلاله بود

lay in the twists of that idol's musky ringlets.

از دست برده بود خمار غمم سحر

At dawn the hangover of my grief had overpowered me;

دولت مساعد آمد و می در پیاله بود

fortune came to my aid, and the wine was in the cup.

بر آستان میکده خون می‌خورم مدام

At the tavern's threshold I drink my heart's blood all the time;

روزی ما ز خوان قدر این نواله بود

this was the morsel fate set aside for us from its table.

هر کو نکاشت مهر و ز خوبی گلی نچید

Whoever did not sow kindness, and picked no rose from beauty,

در رهگذار باد نگهبان لاله بود

was keeping watch over a tulip in the path of the wind.

بر طرف گلشنم گذر افتاد وقت صبح

At morning my way led past the edge of the rose garden,

آن دم که کار مرغ سحر آه و ناله بود

at the hour when the dawn bird's work was sighing and lament.

دیدیم شعر دلکش حافظ به مدح شاه

We saw Hafez's charming poem in praise of the king:

یک بیت از این قصیده به از صد رساله بود

one couplet of this ode was worth more than a hundred treatises.

آن شاه تندحمله که خورشید شیرگیر

That fierce-charging king before whom the lion-hunting sun

پیشش به روز معرکه کمتر غزاله بود

was less than a fawn on the day of battle.