English
Ghazal 6
Breaking a vow of loyalty was never our way.
For God's sake, don't forget the times we shared.
Whoever won't carry the weight of hardship, whose vows are weak,
knows nothing of love's worth and has no honest foothold.
If on Judgment Day I were given the choice of what I want:
our beloved for me, and all the delights of paradise for you.
Even if my head is taken, I will not turn from my promise to you,
so that after I'm gone they'll say: he kept his faith to the end.
Blessed is the sickness that brings my love to visit my bedside;
those sick with such a longing want no cure at all.
If you can't believe what you've done to me, just look in the mirror,
and you'll see what has caught this poor soul in its trap.
If the morning breeze could ever touch the curls of your hair,
it would give up forever the tresses of every bride in the meadow.
Reason bites its finger in sheer astonishment
when it dwells on this face that everyone points to.
I long, like a candle burning before your presence,
to have this helpless self consumed from head to foot.
On the page that holds a lovely face, the shallow eye sees only lines,
but the wise one sees the pen of God's own craft.
Everyone's eyes are fixed upon your face, and yet
the self-worshippers can't tell true love from mere desire.
Learn tenderness from me, and if no life is left in me,
come to Saadi's grave and look for the herb of love that grows there.
No sober mind should blame our drunkenness.
Say to the sober one: leave people be, for ecstasy has made them drunk.