Number 21

RubāʿīIraqi style
English

Number 21

That beloved whom they worship with longing, why did they wound it as they wounded my own heart? The wound that was meant for my heart, what pain, they bound it onto you instead.
Explanation: These fragmentary couplets speak of a wound meant for the poet's heart being transferred to the beloved. The imagery is deliberately ambiguous in the original.

Original · Persian

شمارهٔ ۲۱

ساقت که بآرزو پرستند او را همچون دل من چرا بخستند او را
زخمی که حوالت گه او بود دلم دردا گه برشته بر تو بستند او را