A Persian Song - Hafez

Sweet maid, if thou wouldst charm my sight. 

And bid these arms thy neck enfold: 

That rosy cheek, that lily hand, 

Would give thy poet more delight 

Than all Bocara's vaunted gold. 

Than all the gems of Samarkand. 

Boy, let yon liquid ruby flow. 

And bid thy pensive heart be glad, 

Whate'er the frowning zealots say: 

Tell them, their Eden can not show 

A stream so clear as Rocnabad, 

A bow’r so sweet as Mosellay. 

Oh! when these fair perfidious maids. 

Whose eyes our secret haunts infest. 

Their dear destructive charms display. 

Each glance my tender heart invades, 

And robs my wounded soul of rest. 

As Tartars seize their destined prey. 

In vain with love our bosoms glow: 

Can all our tears, can all our sighs. 

New luster to those charms impart? 

Can cheeks, where living roses blow. 

Where Nature spreads her richest dyes. 

Require the borrowed gloss of art? 

Speak not of fate: — ah! change the theme. 

And talk of odors, talk of wine. 

Talk of the flow'rs that round us bloom: 

'Tis all a cloud, 'tis all a dream; 

To love and joy thy thoughts confine. 

Nor hope to pierce the sacred gloom. 

Beauty has such resistless pow'r, 

That ev'n the chaste Egyptian dame 

Sighed for the blooming Hebrew boy: 

For her how fatal was the hour 

When to the banks of Nilus came 

A youth so lovely and so coy! 

But ah! sweet maid, my counsel hear 

(Youth should attend when those advise 

Whom long experience renders sage) 

While music charms the ravished ear. 

While sparkling cups delight our eyes, 

Be gay, and scorn the frowns of age. 

What cruel answer have I heard? 

And yet, by Heav'n, I love thee still: 

Can aught be cruel from thy lips? 

Yet say, how fell that bitter word 

From lips which streams of sweetness fill, 

Which naught but drops of honey sip? 

Go boldly forth, my simple lay. 

Whose accents flow with artless ease. 

Like Orient pearls at random strung; 

Thy notes are sweet, the damsels say. 

But oh! far sweeter, if they please 

The Nymph for whom these notes are sung. 

---

Hafiz or Hafez [Xāwje Shams-od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī] (1350 - 1390) Persia (modern Iran)

Translated by Sir William Jones

Source: The sacred books and early literature of the East, Volume VIII - Medieval Persia, Charles F. Horne, Park, Austin and Lipscomb, Inc., 1917