Whoever knew the road to the tavern

به کوی میکده هر سالکی که ره دانست

Every wayfarer who knew the road to the tavern's lane

دری دگر زدن اندیشه تبه دانست

knew that knocking at another door was a ruinous thought.

زمانه افسر رندی نداد جز به کسی

Time gave the crown of rendi to no one

که سرفرازی عالم در این کله دانست

but the one who knew that the world's glory lay in this cap.

بر آستانه میخانه هر که یافت رهی

Whoever found a way to the tavern's threshold

ز فیض جام می اسرار خانقه دانست

learned the secrets of the Sufi lodge from the bounty of the cup.

هر آن که راز دو عالم ز خط ساغر خواند

Whoever read the secret of the two worlds in the lines of the goblet

رموز جام جم از نقش خاک ره دانست

learned the mysteries of Jamshid's cup from the prints in the dust of the road.

ورای طاعت دیوانگان ز ما مطلب

Ask nothing of us beyond the obedience of madmen,

که شیخ مذهب ما عاقلی گنه دانست

for the shaykh of our creed held sanity to be a sin.

دلم ز نرگس ساقی امان نخواست به جان

My heart did not ask the saqi's narcissus eye to spare its life,

چرا که شیوه آن ترک دل سیه دانست

for it knew the ways of that black-hearted Turk.

ز جور کوکب طالع ،سحرگهان چشمم

Because of the cruelty of my birth star, at dawn my eyes

چنان گریست که ناهید دید و مه دانست

wept so that Venus saw it and the moon knew.

حدیث حافظ و ساغر که می‌زند پنهان

The tale of Hafez and the cup he drinks in secret,

چه جای محتسب و شحنه، پادشه دانست

never mind the morals officer and the constable: the king knew it.

بلندمرتبه شاهی که نه رواق سپهر

A king of such high rank that he held the nine porticoes of the sky

نمونه‌ای ز خم طاق بارگه دانست

to be a mere copy of the curve of his court's arch.