Times I have said; and again I say,
That, heart bereft, not of myself, have I gone this Path (of love).
Behind the (pure) mirror (of the holy traveller's heart) me, they have kept like the Parrot.
What the Teacher of eternity without beginning said: "Say"; I say.
Whether I be the thorn, or whether the rose, there is a sward-adorner (God),
By whose hand, as (it) cherished me, I grew.
O friends! Me, heart-bereft, astonished, censure not:
A great jewel I have; and the master of vision (the jeweller: God), I seek.
Although to (the wearer of) the patched (dervish) garment, (the drinking of) wine rose of hue, is a sin,
Me, censure not; for with it (from off the dervish garment), the colour of hypocrisy, I wash.
From another place, is the laughing and the weeping of lovers:
In the night (through union with the beloved), I sing; in the morning-time (through separation), I moan.
To me, Hafiz spake saying: "The dust of the tavern-door smell not".
Say: "Censure not; for the (fragrant) musk of Khorasan, I smell".
That, heart bereft, not of myself, have I gone this Path (of love).
Behind the (pure) mirror (of the holy traveller's heart) me, they have kept like the Parrot.
What the Teacher of eternity without beginning said: "Say"; I say.
Whether I be the thorn, or whether the rose, there is a sward-adorner (God),
By whose hand, as (it) cherished me, I grew.
O friends! Me, heart-bereft, astonished, censure not:
A great jewel I have; and the master of vision (the jeweller: God), I seek.
Although to (the wearer of) the patched (dervish) garment, (the drinking of) wine rose of hue, is a sin,
Me, censure not; for with it (from off the dervish garment), the colour of hypocrisy, I wash.
From another place, is the laughing and the weeping of lovers:
In the night (through union with the beloved), I sing; in the morning-time (through separation), I moan.
To me, Hafiz spake saying: "The dust of the tavern-door smell not".
Say: "Censure not; for the (fragrant) musk of Khorasan, I smell".
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Re: Times I have said
Wed, July 4, 2007 - 6:18 AMFor comparison, this is the same ghazal translated by Peter Avery in his excellent 'The Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz' (published this year by Archetype, and which is a translation of the whole of the Diwan). (The previous was from the quite literal C19 translation of the Diwan by Lieutenant Colonel Wilberforce-Clarke)
I have said many times and will say one time more
That I the lost do not of myself run this course:
As if I were a parrot I have been kept the wrong died of the looking-glass -
What the Master of Eternity without Beginning said, "Say", I say.
Whether I am the thorn or whether the rose, there is an Adorner of the field;
It is by that power by which he plants me that I grow.
Do not, friends, censure heart-lost crazy me -
I have a jewel and am seeking the possessor of perception.
Although the colour of wine does not go with the particoloured gown,
Do not fault me, because I wash away the colour of hypocrisy with it.
The laughter and tears of lovers belong somewhere else;
In the night I am singing, but at the break of day, I am moaning.
Hafiz said tome, "Do not sniff the dust of the wine-tavern's door"
Say, "Cast no blame, for I am smelling the musk of Khorasan."
(Ghazal 373).
Avery notes:
1. The expression meaning 'the parrot the wrong side of the looking-glass" alludes to a parrot being put before a mirror while an instructor from behind it teaches the parrot to speak, which the parrot does imagining that he himself must be speaking the words on his own since he cannot see the instructor. Read "instructor" with a capital "I" and Hafiz's point becomes clear.
2. The word translated "particoloured", mulamma, besides meaning "variegated", "particoloured", etc., can also mean "hypocritical". See next hemistich.
