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.
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.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
مرغی دیدم نشسته بر باره طوس
در پیش نهاده کله کیکاووس
I saw a bird perched on the ramparts of Tus,
with the skull of Kay Kavus set down before it.
A Bird on the Walls of Tus
یکی قطره باران ز ابری چکید
خجل شد چو پهنای دریا بدید
A drop of rain fell from a cloud;
it was ashamed when it saw the breadth of the sea.
A Drop of Rain
ابتدای کار سیمرغ ای عجب
جلوهگر بگذشت بر چین نیمشب
The beginning of the Simorgh’s story, how wonderful:
in all his splendour he passed over China at midnight.