Where are the tidings of union? - Hafez

Where are the tidings of union? that I may arise —

Forth from the dust I will rise up to welcome thee!

My soul, like a homing bird, yearning for Paradise,

Shall arise and soar, from the snares of the world set free.

When the voice of thy love shall call me to be thy slave,

I shall rise to a greater far than the mastery 

Of life and the living, time and the mortal span:

Pour down, oh Lord! from the clouds of thy guiding grace 

The rain of a mercy that quickeneth on my grave.

Before, like dust that the wind bears from place to place,

I arise and flee beyond the knowledge of man.

When to my grave thou turnest thy blessed feet.

Wine and the lute thou shalt bring in thine hand to me.

Thy voice shall ring through the folds of my winding-sheet. 

And I will arise and dance to thy minstrelsy.

Though I be old, clasp me one night to thy breast.

And I, when the dawn shall come to awaken me.

With the flush of youth on my cheek from thy bosom will rise.

Rise up! let mine eyes delight in thy stately grace!

Thou art the goal to which all men’s endeavour has pressed.

And thou the idol of Hafiz’ worship; thy face

From the world and life shall bid him come forth and arise!

---

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

Translated by Gertrude Bell

Source: Fifty Poems Of Hafiz by Arthur J. Arberry, Cambridge University Press, 1947