No Pain Like the Pain of Love
Sanaiسنایی
چون درد عاشقی به جهان هیچ درد نیست
There is no pain in the world like the pain of love;
تا درد عاشقی نچشد مرد، مرد نیست
until a man has tasted the pain of love, he is no man.
آغاز عشق یک نظرش با حلاوت‌ست
The start of love is a single glance, and it is sweet;
انجام عشق جز غم و جز آه سرد نیست
the end of love is nothing but grief and a cold sigh.
عشق آتشی‌ست در دل و آبی‌ست در دو چشم
Love is a fire in the heart and water in the two eyes;
با هر که عشق جفت‌ست زین هر دو فرد نیست
whoever is paired with love is never without these two.
شهدی‌ست با شرنگ و نشاطی‌ست با تعب
It is honey with poison, and delight with toil,
داروی دردناک‌‌ست آن را که درد نیست
a painful remedy for one who has no pain.
آن کس که عشق بازد، جان بازد و جمال
Whoever plays at love stakes his life and his looks:
بنمای عاشقی که چو من روش زرد نیست
show me a lover whose face is not as yellow as mine.
A note for readers
A complete short ghazal on the sweetness and the cost of love. The yellow face of the last line is the lover’s pallor, a fixed image of Persian love poetry. Ghazals like this one, which can be read as human or divine love, are part of what made Sanai a model for Attar and Rumi.
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.