Fair Wind, Be Kind
by Hafez
Fair wind, be kind –
Tell that lovely gazelle who it was
That made me wander distraught
Across desert sands and mountain cliffs.
The seller of sweets,
May she have long life –
Why is she not generous
To this parrot longing for honey?
Oh flower,
Is it your proud nature
That keeps you aloof
From the bird dancing around you?
It is the beauty of one’s nature
That nets the seekers.
Ropes and cages never trap
The wary bird.
How is it that those tall beauties,
With black eyes shining
From faces of moonlike radiance –
Pass me by?
How can your face show such beauty,
While here in Earth
You are the image
Of inconstancy and faithlessness?
Hafiz –
Your sayings draw melodies
From the stars
And set even the son of Mary to dance.
While you keep the company of the enlightened
And quaff the mystic wine,
Forget not those, who sail upon the heavens
As birds glide upon the wind.
From: The Diwan of Hafiz Shirazi, Selected and Translated from the Farsi by
Parham Noori-Esfandiari and Alan Dean Ild, Edited by Michael R. Brown