Ghazal · 17th century

The World Shows No Mercy to Its Own

Saeb Tabriziصائب تبریزی

دلکوب نیست حادثه دنیاپرست را

Misfortune does not break the heart of one who worships the world:

ماهی ز حرص طعمه فرو خورد شست را

in its greed for the bait, the fish swallows the hook.

دنیا به اهل خویش ترحم نمی کند

The world shows no mercy to its own people;

آتش امان نمی دهد آتش پرست را

fire gives no quarter to the fire-worshipper.

دست از جهان بشوی که اطفال حادثات

Wash your hands of the world, for the children of mischance

افشانده اند میوه این شاخ پست را

have already shaken down the fruit of this low branch.

از هر ترنمی دلش از جای می رود

At every melody the heart leaps from its place

هر کس شنیده است ندای الست را

in anyone who has heard the call of “Am I not your Lord?”

از بند گشت شورش مجنون زیادتر

Chains only made Majnun’s frenzy greater:

زنجیر، تازیانه بود فیل مست را

to a raging elephant the chain is a whip.

صائب خموش باش که در مجلس شراب

Saeb, be silent, for at a gathering over wine

داروی بیهشی است سخن می پرست را

talk is a drug that dulls the wine-lover’s senses.

From: The Divan of Saeb
Translation: Persiahaus Editors
Source: Draft translation from the Ganjoor text
Persian text: Ganjoor

A note for readers

A complete short ghazal. Two of its couplets, on the world that shows no mercy to those who love it, as fire spares no fire-worshipper, and on the low branch whose fruit the ‘children of mischance’ have already picked, are among the couplets chosen from Saeb’s Divan to stand on their own. The ‘call’ of the fourth couplet is God’s question to the souls before creation in the Quran (7:172), ‘Am I not your Lord?’