Ghazal · 14th centuryDraft

Last Night I Saw the Angels

Hafezحافظ

دوش دیدم که ملایک در میخانه زدند

Last night I saw the angels knocking at the tavern door;

گل آدم بسرشتند و به پیمانه زدند

they kneaded the clay of Adam and cast it in the measuring cup.

ساکنان حرم ستر و عفاف ملکوت

The dwellers in the sanctuary of heaven’s veil and chastity

با من راه نشین باده مستانه زدند

drank the wine of drunkenness with me, a beggar of the road.

آسمان بار امانت نتوانست کشید

Heaven could not bear the burden of the trust;

قرعه کار به نام من دیوانه زدند

they cast the lot for the task in the name of mad me.

جنگ هفتاد و دو ملت همه را عذر بنه

Excuse the war of the seventy-two sects, all of them:

چون ندیدند حقیقت ره افسانه زدند

since they did not see the truth, they took the road of fable.

شکر ایزد که میان من و او صلح افتاد

Thanks be to God that peace has fallen between me and him;

صوفیان رقص کنان ساغر شکرانه زدند

the Sufis, dancing, raised the cup of thanksgiving.

آتش آن نیست که از شعله او خندد شمع

Fire is not that at whose flame the candle laughs;

آتش آن است که در خرمن پروانه زدند

fire is what they set to the moth’s harvest.

کس چو حافظ نگشاد از رخ اندیشه نقاب

No one like Hafez has drawn the veil from the face of thought

تا سر زلف سخن را به قلم شانه زدند

since first they combed the tresses of speech with the pen.

From: The Divan of Hafez
Translation: Persiahaus Editors [Draft translation]
Source: New translation

A note for readers

A complete ghazal on the creation of Adam, drawing on the Quranic verse in which the heavens, the earth and the mountains refuse the ‘trust’ that humankind accepts (33:72). The ‘seventy-two sects’ is a traditional count of the divisions of the faith. In the last couplet Hafez, as poets often did, praises his own art.