Hafez on Wine and mysticism

210 ghazals

1. Ghazal 1: O cupbearer, pass the cup around and hand it on,
2. Ghazal 2: Where is right conduct, and where am I, the ruined one?
3. Ghazal 5: My heart is slipping from my hand; you who have hearts, for God's sake help!
4. Ghazal 7: Come, Sufi, for the cup is a clear mirror;
5. Ghazal 9: The garden has again the bloom of the days of youth;
6. Ghazal 10: Last night our elder came from the mosque to the tavern;
7. Ghazal 13: Dawn is breaking and the cloud has pitched its canopy;
8. Ghazal 15: O holy beauty, who unties the cord of your veil?
9. Ghazal 16: The curve your playful eyebrow set in its bow
10. Ghazal 17: My breast has burned with the heart's fire in grief for the beloved;
11. Ghazal 19: O breeze of dawn, where is the resting place of the friend?
12. Ghazal 20: The fast is over, the festival has come and hearts have risen;
13. Ghazal 22: When you hear the words of people of the heart, do not say they are wrong;
14. Ghazal 26: Hair dishevelled, sweating, laughing-lipped and drunk,
15. Ghazal 27: My beloved came into the Magian temple, a cup in hand,
16. Ghazal 29: With the thought of you, what care have we for wine?
17. Ghazal 36: Since the tip of your tress fell into the hand of the breeze,
18. Ghazal 37: Come, for the palace of hope stands on very weak foundations;
19. Ghazal 39: What need has my garden of cypress and pine?
20. Ghazal 40: Thanks be to God that the tavern door is open,
21. Ghazal 41: Though wine gives joy and the wind sifts roses,
22. Ghazal 42: To tell you the state of my heart is my desire;
23. Ghazal 43: The garden court gives delight and the company of friends is sweet;
24. Ghazal 44: Now that the rose holds a cup of clear wine in its palm,
25. Ghazal 46: The rose at my breast, wine in my hand and the beloved as I wish:
26. Ghazal 47: Every wayfarer who learned the way to the tavern street
27. Ghazal 52: For a long time now, passion for the beautiful has been my religion;
28. Ghazal 53: I am one for whom the corner of the tavern is the dervish lodge;
29. Ghazal 58: Our head of devotion and the threshold of the friend's presence,
30. Ghazal 63: No one has seen your face, and you have a thousand watchers;
31. Ghazal 64: Though to display one's skill before the friend is bad manners,
32. Ghazal 69: There is no one who has not fallen to that double tress;
33. Ghazal 71: The ascetic who worships appearances knows nothing of our state;
34. Ghazal 72: The road of love is a road that has no shore;
35. Ghazal 73: There is no eye that is not lit by the light of your face;
36. Ghazal 74: The yield of the workshop of existence and space is not so much;
37. Ghazal 76: Apart from your threshold I have no refuge in the world;
38. Ghazal 77: A nightingale held a bright-coloured rose petal in its beak,
39. Ghazal 80: Do not find fault with the rends, O ascetic of pure nature,
40. Ghazal 81: At dawn the bird of the meadow said to the newly risen rose:
41. Ghazal 84: Cupbearer, bring wine, for the month of fasting is gone;
42. Ghazal 87: Your beauty, in alliance with charm, has taken the world;
43. Ghazal 91: O you who are absent from my sight, I entrust you to God;
44. Ghazal 94: Of that heart-soothing friend I have thanks mixed with complaint;
45. Ghazal 98: If in your creed the blood of the lover is lawful,
46. Ghazal 101: What is wine and pleasure in secret? A work without foundation.
47. Ghazal 110: In my old age the love of a young one has come into my head,
48. Ghazal 111: When the reflection of your face fell in the mirror of the cup,
49. Ghazal 115: Plant the tree of friendship, for it bears the heart's desire as fruit;
50. Ghazal 116: Whoever keeps the beauty and the down of the friend before his eyes,
51. Ghazal 118: The one who holds a cup in his hand
52. Ghazal 123: The minstrel of love has a wondrous tune and melody;
53. Ghazal 125: A beauty is not one who has fine hair and a slender waist;
54. Ghazal 126: The soul, without the beauty of the beloved, has no desire for the world;
55. Ghazal 127: The moon does not have the brightness of your face;
56. Ghazal 131: Come, for the Turk of the sky has plundered the table of the fast;
57. Ghazal 132: With the bright water of wine a gnostic made his ablution
58. Ghazal 133: The Sufi set his snare and opened the lid of his box of tricks;
59. Ghazal 135: Like the wind, I will set out for the end of the friend's street;
60. Ghazal 143: For years the heart was asking us for Jamshid's cup,
61. Ghazal 144: You will be able to look into the secret of Jamshid's cup
62. Ghazal 145: I do not know what drunkenness this is that has turned our way,
63. Ghazal 149: My heart takes no road but love of the moon-faced;
64. Ghazal 154: Play a tune to whose music one can heave a sigh;
65. Ghazal 158: I, and denial of wine? What sort of tale is that?
66. Ghazal 159: Not all the Sufi's coin is pure and unalloyed;
67. Ghazal 161: How can a mind that is sad bring forth fresh verse?
68. Ghazal 162: The rose has come and is sweet, and nothing is sweeter
69. Ghazal 164: The breath of the morning breeze will scatter musk;
70. Ghazal 165: Love of the dark-eyed will not go out of my head;
71. Ghazal 166: The day of separation and the night of parting from the friend are over;
72. Ghazal 167: A star shone out and became the moon of the gathering;
73. Ghazal 168: My soul melted so that the heart's business might be done, and it was not;
74. Ghazal 170: The ascetic who sat in seclusion went last night to the tavern;
75. Ghazal 175: The morning breeze came to congratulate the old wine seller:
76. Ghazal 177: Not everyone who lights up a face knows how to win hearts;
77. Ghazal 178: Whoever became a confidant of the heart remained in the friend's sanctuary,
78. Ghazal 182: You wrote no account of how you are, and some days have passed;
79. Ghazal 184: Last night I saw the angels knocking at the tavern door;
80. Ghazal 186: If the wine seller grants the need of the rends,
81. Ghazal 188: That meddler faults me for being a rend and a lover
82. Ghazal 189: If the bird of fortune passes this way again,
83. Ghazal 191: Who is there that out of generosity will keep faith with us,
84. Ghazal 192: Why does my swaying cypress feel no leaning towards the meadow?
85. Ghazal 193: At our play of glances the uninformed stand bewildered;
86. Ghazal 195: Those who wear crowns are slaves of your drunken narcissus;
87. Ghazal 196: Those who with a glance turn dust into gold,
88. Ghazal 198: I said: "When will your mouth and lip grant me my desire?"
89. Ghazal 199: The preachers who make such a display in prayer-niche and pulpit,
90. Ghazal 200: Do you know what the harp and the lute are saying?
91. Ghazal 201: Unmixed wine and a fair cupbearer are two snares on the road,
92. Ghazal 202: Will it be that they open the doors of the taverns,
93. Ghazal 203: For years our book was in pawn for red wine;
94. Ghazal 204: Be it remembered: the time when in secret you had a glance for us,
95. Ghazal 205: As long as there is name and trace of tavern and wine,
96. Ghazal 207: Be it remembered: when the head of your street was my dwelling,
97. Ghazal 208: When the wounded have the desire and have not the strength,
98. Ghazal 209: The killing of this wounded one by your sword was not fated;
99. Ghazal 214: I saw in a sweet dream that there was a cup in my hand;
100. Ghazal 215: In the street of the tavern, O Lord, what a commotion there was at dawn,
101. Ghazal 218: Whoever in pre-eternity was found worthy of the bounty of fortune,
102. Ghazal 220: From the eye the blood of the heart runs all over our face;
103. Ghazal 226: I fear that my tears will tear the veil from our grief,
104. Ghazal 227: Though these words will not come easy to the preacher of the city:
105. Ghazal 232: I am resolved that, if it lies within my power,
106. Ghazal 240: The cloud of early spring has risen, the wind of the New Year has blown;
107. Ghazal 243: Whoever caught your sweet scent from the east wind
108. Ghazal 246: It is the festival, the last of the roses, and the friends are waiting;
109. Ghazal 250: Show your face and take my own existence out of my memory;
110. Ghazal 251: It is the night of union, and the letter of separation is folded away;
111. Ghazal 252: If life lasts, I will reach the tavern once again,
112. Ghazal 260: O cypress of the grace of beauty, who walk so sweetly in your pride,
113. Ghazal 263: Come, and launch our boat upon the river of wine;
114. Ghazal 265: My desire, in longing for your lip, has not yet been fulfilled;
115. Ghazal 266: My heart has run away to a gypsy-like one who stirs up tumult,
116. Ghazal 268: One rose-cheeked beauty from the rose garden of the world is enough for us;
117. Ghazal 269: O heart, your own well-wishing fortune is companion enough for the journey;
118. Ghazal 272: Come back, and be the soul's companion to my straitened heart,
119. Ghazal 274: In the season of the tulip take the cup, and be free of hypocrisy;
120. Ghazal 276: If the gardener wants the company of the rose for five days,
121. Ghazal 281: O Lord, this smiling new rose that you entrusted to me,
122. Ghazal 283: At dawn good news reached my ear from the voice of the unseen:
123. Ghazal 284: Last night a voice from the corner of the tavern
124. Ghazal 286: Last night a sharp-witted man who knows how things work told me in private,
125. Ghazal 288: The water's edge, the foot of the willow, a mind for poetry and a pleasant friend;
126. Ghazal 290: My heart has bolted, and I, a poor dervish, do not know
127. Ghazal 292: I swear by the pomp, the rank and the glory of Shah Shuja
128. Ghazal 294: In faithfulness to your love I am famous among the fair, like the candle;
129. Ghazal 296: If my star gives its help, I will bring his skirt into my hand;
130. Ghazal 299: If you drink wine, pour a draught out on the earth;
131. Ghazal 307: Every fine point that I spoke in describing that figure,
132. Ghazal 311: I am in love with the face of a fair youth newly come to bloom,
133. Ghazal 313: Come back, cupbearer, for I am eager to serve,
134. Ghazal 314: Last night the languor of your eye carried me away,
135. Ghazal 317: I say it openly, and I am glad at heart for what I say:
136. Ghazal 319: For years I followed the creed of the rends,
137. Ghazal 321: Though I have grown old, weary of heart and feeble,
138. Ghazal 325: If the dust from the sole of my beloved's foot comes to my hand,
139. Ghazal 326: In the hidden house of pleasure I have a lovely idol,
140. Ghazal 327: I have a covenant with the beloved that, as long as there is life in my body,
141. Ghazal 329: At dawn the Twins laid their sword-belt down before me,
142. Ghazal 331: If he kills me with the sword, I will not hold back his hand;
143. Ghazal 332: Do not strike my heart with the arrow of your glance,
144. Ghazal 333: At the strangers' evening prayer, when I begin to weep,
145. Ghazal 334: If my hand should reach your two tresses once again,
146. Ghazal 335: If my way should lead once more to the tavern of the Magians,
147. Ghazal 337: Why should I not set my mind on returning to my own land?
148. Ghazal 340: I, who from the fire of my heart am seething like the jar of wine,
149. Ghazal 341: If I gave any thought to the reproaches of the pretenders,
150. Ghazal 343: More than forty years have gone by in which I have been boasting
151. Ghazal 345: Without you, O walking cypress, what am I to do with rose and rose garden?
152. Ghazal 346: I am not the kind of rend who gives up beauty and the cup;
153. Ghazal 350: At dawn, meaning to repent, I said: "I will seek guidance by a casting of lots."
154. Ghazal 352: For a long time now I have been serving in the tavern;
155. Ghazal 353: I will not give up the love of beauty and of the cup;
156. Ghazal 355: For the present I see the wisdom of the hour in this:
157. Ghazal 356: If it should lie within my power to sit with the keeper of my heart,
158. Ghazal 357: In the tavern of the Magians I see the light of God;
159. Ghazal 358: For the grief of the times, to which I can see no shore,
160. Ghazal 359: Happy the day when I leave this ruined halting place,
161. Ghazal 360: If I go from this ruined halting place towards home,
162. Ghazal 361: The one who trampled me underfoot with cruelty, like the dust of the road,
163. Ghazal 362: The meeting has come about, and the kiss and the embrace as well;
164. Ghazal 364: We, the carefree and drunken who have lost our hearts,
165. Ghazal 367: I have a ruling from the Magian elder, and it is an old saying,
166. Ghazal 368: Rise, so that we may seek an opening at the door of the tavern,
167. Ghazal 370: What virtue do you look for from us? We have called the drunken to the feast;
168. Ghazal 371: We have laid down our dawn lesson on the road to the tavern;
169. Ghazal 372: Let us pass along the highway of the tavern,
170. Ghazal 373: Rise, so that we may carry the Sufi's cloak to the tavern,
171. Ghazal 374: Come, let us scatter roses and pour wine into the cup;
172. Ghazal 375: Sufi, come, let us pull off the cloak of sham,
173. Ghazal 377: One night we will raise our hands and make a prayer,
174. Ghazal 378: We do not speak ill, and we do not lean towards what is unjust;
175. Ghazal 379: My head is merry, and I say it in a loud voice:
176. Ghazal 380: Many times I have said it, and I say it once more:
177. Ghazal 386: For God's sake, sit less often with the wearers of the cloak,
178. Ghazal 391: What could be more pleasant than the thought of wine and the cup?
179. Ghazal 393: It is I who am famous in the city for the practice of love;
180. Ghazal 398: O light of my eyes, there is something to be said: listen.
181. Ghazal 404: Cast on the ranks of the rends a glance better than this;
182. Ghazal 405: By the life of the elder of the tavern and the right of his company,
183. Ghazal 406: He said: you went out to watch the new moon;
184. Ghazal 415: O messenger of the truthful, tell us news of our friend;
185. Ghazal 417: My pleasure is lasting, from the ruby lip I desire;
186. Ghazal 418: If swords rain down in the lane of that moon,
187. Ghazal 421: The door of the house of the Magians had been swept and sprinkled;
188. Ghazal 423: Last night I went to the tavern door, heavy with sleep,
189. Ghazal 427: The candle has become the moth of the lamp of your face;
190. Ghazal 435: Do not tell the pretender the secrets of love and drunkenness,
191. Ghazal 444: It is a city full of charming people, with a beauty on every side;
192. Ghazal 447: Come, do not go on bearing this grudge against us,
193. Ghazal 448: O you who have a place in the lane of the tavern,
194. Ghazal 450: For a long time now you have kept us anxious;
195. Ghazal 459: With this fine script that you draw on the rose of your cheek,
196. Ghazal 463: The peace of God, for as long as the nights return
197. Ghazal 466: This cloak that I have is better in pawn for wine,
198. Ghazal 467: Of that wine of love by which every raw one is ripened,
199. Ghazal 469: The scents of the bay tree of the sanctuary have come, and my passion has grown;
200. Ghazal 470: My breast is brimful of pain: alas, for a salve!
201. Ghazal 471: Who will bring me the kindness of a line from my beloved's pen?
202. Ghazal 473: Count time as gain, as far as you are able;
203. Ghazal 479: It is morning, and the dew drips from the winter cloud;
204. Ghazal 482: O heart, you do not pass through the lane of love;
205. Ghazal 483: At dawn, a wayfarer in a certain land
206. Ghazal 488: At dawn the voice of the tavern, wishing me well,
207. Ghazal 489: O you in whose face the lights of kingship are plain to see,
208. Ghazal 490: In all the monastery of the Magians there is no one so distraught as I:
209. Ghazal 492: A greeting, like the pleasant scent of friendship,
210. Ghazal 493: O king of the beautiful, save me from the grief of loneliness;