Ghazal 16

Ghazal 16

GhazalIraqi style

English

As long as the weight of your sorrow rests on my dazed heart, the fire of your love will never let my burning blood settle. The memory of rose and hyacinth will never cross my mind as long as those curls and that fair neck stay in my thoughts. It would take a drink more bitter than the poison of parting from you to make me forget the sweetness of being with you. Every night I lay my head on the pillow grieving your absence, since no day ever brought your embrace into my arms. If they hand me a hundred cups of sweet wine without your lips, I swear by your mouth that even that honey tastes like poison to me. Caught in the hands of your sorrow, its executioner, Saadi says: I am your slave, put me to death but do not sell me off.

Explanation: In the final couplet, the beloved's sorrow is imagined as an executioner holding the poet; the plea is a familiar image of total devotion, preferring death by the beloved to being given to anyone else.

Original · Persian

غزل شمارهٔ ۱۶

تا بود بار غمت بر دل بی‌هوش مرا سوز عشقت ننشاند ز جگر جوش مرا

نگذرد یاد گل و سنبلم اندر خاطر تا به خاطر بود آن زلف و بناگوش مرا

شربتی تلختر از زهر فراقت باید تا کند لذت وصل تو فراموش مرا

هر شبم با غم هجران تو سر بر بالین روزی ار با تو نشد دست در آغوش مرا

بی دهان تو اگر صد قدح نوش دهند به دهان تو که زهر آید از آن نوش مرا

سعدی اندر کف جلاد غمت می‌گوید بنده‌ام بنده به کشتن ده و مفروش مرا