Hafez, Ghazal #1

BY Hafez
TRANSLATED BY Roger Sedarat
Persian

الا یا ایها الـساقی ادر کاسا و ناولـها / که عشق آسان نمود اول ولی افتاد مشکل‌ها / بـه بوی نافه‌ای کاخر صبا زان طره بگـشاید / ز تاب جعد مشکینش چه خون افـتاد در دل‌ها / مرا در منزل جانان چه امـن عیش چون هر دم / جرس فریاد می‌دارد که بربندید مـحـمـل‌ها / بـه می سجاده رنگین کن گرت پیر مغان گوید / کـه سالک بی‌خبر نبود ز راه و رسم منزل‌ها / شـب تاریک و بیم موج و گردابی چنین هایل / کـجا دانـند حال ما سبکـباران ساحـل‌ها / همـه کارم ز خود کامی به بدنامی کشید آخر / نـهان کی ماند آن رازی کز او سازند محفل‌ها / حضوری گر همی‌خواهی از او غایب مشو حافظ / مـتی ما تلق من تهوی دع الدنیا و اهملـها

English

Hey wine boy! Keep giving us more to drink.
Love’s not something we endure or outthink.

The musky flower’s perfume in the breeze
Buzzes us blindly to its core to drink.

Bound to the world, my beloved jangles
Chains of existence to sever the link.

The holy man knows best. If he insists,
Paint prayer rugs with rags and wine-colored ink!

We who’d drown in love know the wave’s terror.
Those with closed hearts, safe on the shore, don’t sink.

My selfish verse made me notorious.
(Truth remains hidden when the liars speak).

Hafez, don’t run away from his presence.
When caught by him, release the world and sing.

 

Biography

HAFEZ is one of the classical masters of Persian poetry. He was born in Shiraz, Iran during the early fourteenth century.

ROGER SEDARAT is the author of Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic (Ohio University Press, 2007), which won the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, and Ghazal Games (Ohio University Press, 2011). His translations of classical and modern Persian poetry have recently appeared in World Literature Today, Drunken Boat, and Ezra. He teaches poetry and literary translation in the MFA program at Queens College, City University of New York.

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