To Hadschi Kiwameddin

Come, come, Saki, in my wine cup
Set your scarlet sun a-glow,
Singer, lift your sweetest lute up
For the founts of fancy flow.

Mirrored in the cup’s rich measure
Lips and cheeks like rubies shine,
Ah! you do not know the pleasure
That flows to me from the wine!

Yet my fond, frail, wine-born fairy,
You can hold me but few hours,
Till like pines on uplands airy
My slim cypress by me towers.

If your heart by love is smitten
Unto death no dread path is;
Therefore in Fate’s book ’tis written:
By love deathless is Hafiz.

When at Judgment’s bar I’m standing,
Brighter not will Sheik’s bread shine,
Nor a price bring more commanding
Than my own forbidden wine.

Morning Wind, you restless rover,
Should you her rose-garden pass,
Quickly bend a pearl ear over
And breathe: “Greetings, sweetest lass!”