full of youth and joy that day i leave this ruined house,
and seek comfort for my soul: i will find the beloved.
although i know the foreign road has no end,
i will pursue the scent of her disheveled curls.
with hurt body and spent heart, like the dawn breeze
i will follow that striding cypress with affection.
my heart was terrified of alexander’s prison-
i will pack up and find the kingdom of solomon.
if, on the way to him, i have to travel on my head like a pen,
i will go with a wounded heart and weeping eye.
i vowed one day, if i walk through this door of pain,
that i would enter the wine house happy and singing.
a dancing dust mote longing for him,
i will go to the eye of the blazing sun.
the arabian does not know the donkey’s burden.
o pure one, help me to travel with joy and ease!
if, like hafez, i don’t find my way out of this desert,
i will go with the retinue of the asaf of our time.
notes: asaf= proverbially wise counsellor to solomon,
and a sobriquet for hafez’s patron.
