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Ghazal · 14th century

If the Friend Is Near, What Is Hell or Heaven

Khwaju Kermaniخواجوی کرمانی

منزل ار یار قرین است چه دوزخ چه بهشت

If the Friend is with you at the lodging, what matter hell or heaven?

سجده‌گه گر به نیاز است چه مسجد چه کنشت

If the bowing is done in need, what matter mosque or temple?

جای آسایش مشتاق چه هامون و چه کوه

For the one who longs, what matter plain or mountain, as a place of rest?

رهزن خاطر عشاق چه زیبا و چه زشت

For what robs lovers of their peace, what matter fair or foul?

عشقبازی نه به بازی‌ست که داننده غیب

Love-play is not play, for the Knower of the unseen

عشق در طینت آدم نه به بازیچه سرشت

did not knead love into Adam’s clay in jest.

تا چه کردم که ز بدنامی و رسوایی من

What have I done, that for my ill repute and disgrace

ساکن دیر مغانم به خرابات نهشت

the keeper of the Magian cloister would not let me into the tavern?

گر سر تربت من باز گشایی بینی

If you open my grave, you will see

قالبم سوخته و گل شده از خون همه خشت

my body burned, and every brick turned to mud with blood.

همچو بالای تو در باغ کسی سرو ندید

No one ever saw a cypress in a garden like your stature;

همچو رخسار تو دهقان به چمن لاله نکشت

no farmer ever grew a tulip in a meadow like your cheek.

بر گل روی تو آن خال معنبر که نشاند

Who set that amber-scented mole on the rose of your face?

بر مه عارضت آن خط مسلسل که نوشت

Who wrote that chain of script, the down, on the moon of your cheek?

هر که بیند که تو از باغ برون می‌آیی

Whoever sees you coming out of the garden

گوید این حور چرا خیمه برون زد ز بهشت

says, ‘Why has this houri pitched her tent outside paradise?’

تا به چشمت همه پاکیزه نماید خواجو

So that all may seem pure in your eyes, Khwaju,

خاک شو بر گذر مردم پاکیزه‌سرشت

become dust on the path of the pure-natured.

Translation
Persiahaus Editors
Source
Draft translation from the Ganjoor text
Persian text
Ganjoor

A note for readers

A ghazal from the Safariyat, the ‘poems of travel’, in the Sanaye’ al-Kamal part of Khwaju’s divan. Its opening couplets set aside the difference between heaven and hell, mosque and temple, for a lover whose only concern is the Friend; the poem then turns to praise of the beloved’s beauty, and ends by counselling humility.

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