Hafez, Ghazal #3

BY Hafez
TRANSLATED BY Roger Sedarat
Persian

اگر آن ترک شیرازی بـه دسـت آرد دل ما را / بـه خال هـندویش بخشم سمرقند و بـخارا را / بده ساقی می باقی که در جنت نخواهی یافـت / کـنار آب رکـن آباد و گلگـشـت مـصـلا را / فـغان کاین لولیان شوخ شیرین کار شـهرآشوب / چـنان بردند صبر از دل که ترکان خوان یغـما را / ز عشـق ناتـمام ما جمال یار مستغنی اسـت / بـه آب و رنگ و خال و خط چه حاجت روی زیبا را / من از آن حسن روزافزون که یوسف داشت دانستم / کـه عـشـق از پرده عصمت برون آرد زلیخا را / اگر دشـنام فرمایی و گر نـفرین دعا گویم / جواب تـلـخ می‌زیبد لـب لعـل شـکرخا را / نصیحـت گوش کن جانا که از جان دوست‌تر دارند / جوانان سـعادتـمـند پـند پیر دانا را / حدیث از مـطرب و می گو و راز دهر کـمـتر جو / کـه کس نگشود و نگشاید به حکمت این معما را / غزل گفتی و در سفتی بیا و خوش بخوان حافـظ / کـه بر نـظـم تو افـشاند فلک عـقد ثریا را

English

For the Shirazi’s mole, I’d offer a
Trade of Samarkand and Bukhara.

Drink wine; in paradise there’s no rain of
Ruknabad or roses of Musalla.

Don’t mind those loafers, allergic to work,
Though Turks (real men) haul our city away.

Does the beloved need imperfect love?
Can’t true beauty see through our false aura?

Yusef grew more beautiful day by day,
Summoning secret lust of Zulaikha.

I’m glad you speak ill of me. God approves.
Bitter talk sweetens your mouth with sugar.

Children who hear the old wise man’s advice
Grow up in life earning their souls an “A.”

Solve plots of common, human narratives.
The beloved needs no interpreter.

Hafez, when you write ghazals you thread pearls,
Scattering stars in a candelabra.

 

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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