English
What Can a Servant Do?
What can a servant do but bow to the command?
What can the ball do but yield helplessly to the mallet?
If that tall, arch-browed beauty shoots an arrow,
the true lover is the one who takes the arrowhead in his own eye.
Take my hand, for my helplessness has passed all limits;
hold my head, so I can pour out my life at your feet.
If only the veil would drop from that vision of beauty,
so all the world could see this living gallery of loveliness.
Then everyone's eyes would be lost in wonder at your qualities,
and no one would blame me for being dazed.
But the image I see in your face,
not everyone has the eyes to see it.
I told the doctor about my weeping eyes;
he said, just once, kiss that smiling mouth.
I said, then surely I will die of this pain,
for it is impossible for me to obtain that cure.
It was not wise to wrestle with that silver forearm;
to punch an anvil is the height of foolishness.
Saadi does not fear the reproach of people, not at all;
why would someone already drowned in the river worry about rain?
Lay down your head, if you want to enter the field of devotion;
in this arena you have no choice but to be the ball.