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| Claudia Serea, Guest Blog Editor |
To
get started, I’d like to share the Persian poet Hafez, translated by Roger Sedarat.
Again, remember, in February and beyond: read, write, and share
your favorite translated poems.
—Claudia
Serea
Ghazal 1
Hey wine boy! Keep giving us more to drink.
Love’s not something we endure or outthink.
The musky flower’s perfume in the breeze
Buzzes bees blindly to its core to drink.
Bound to the world, my beloved jangles
Chains of existence to sever the link.
The holy man knows best. If he insists,
Paint prayer rugs with rags and wine-colored ink!
We who’d drown in love know the wave’s terror.
Those with closed hearts, safe on the shore, won’t sink.
My selfish verse made me notorious.
(Truth remains hidden when the liars speak).
Hafez, don’t run away from his presence.
When caught by him, release the world and sing.
Ghazal 6
Who will recite this prayer to the
sultan:
“Let love link the beggar to the
sovereign” ?
When demon eyes watch me in the
dark woods,
Offer light and shelter to the
sovereign.
Idol, be mindful of dark eyelashes.
Deceit doesn’t matter to the
sovereign.
A loving expression consumes a world.
Your selfishness looks poor to the
sovereign.
In restless nights, I pray the
morning breeze
Will carry the lover to the
sovereign.
Moon-strike them, beloved!
Cypress-shake them.
Show the lovers’ nature to the
sovereign.
For God’s sake, give Hafez a
morning drink.
He’ll bless you in a prayer to the
sovereign.
Ghazal 22
You don’t know words, just language
of the heart.
Your sense of truth’s a pure gauge
of the heart.
I need not bow my head to this cold
world.
My thoughts live in hermitage of
the heart.
I cannot find myself in clean
order.
I’m lost in frenzied garbage of the
heart.
My love goes looking for you in
music,
Performing on the grand stage of
the heart.
I need not be paid in their
currency.
Your beauty gives me the wage of
the heart.
Bad dreams won’t let me sleep.
Where’s the tavern?
I’ll drink to the sacrilege of the
heart.
I stained the sacred walls with my
own blood.
Can wine clean me? Tell me, judge
of the heart.
To keep my love eternally burning,
The mystics make a hostage of the
heart.
I can’t stop singing that song from
last night,
(Instilled melodic knowledge of the
heart).
Though they shout it while I keep
it within,
My love contains a strong surge of
the heart.
Ghazal 31
This dark sky knows how powerful
night is.
Stars, can you say why our luck’s
the brightest?
To keep outcasts from reaching your
great trees,
Prayers in our circle hold your
love highest.
I’m one of many killed by your
dimple.
Under your chin’s where all beauty’s
might is.
The moon mirrors the dark face of
my horse.
His light hooves track where the
sun’s gold ride is.
I can’t leave wine or the beloved’s
lips.
They are my only religious
guidance.
“Life swiftly flows in stealth, a
cold dark breeze.”
(The black crow uses my pen to
write this).
Who’s look has shot an arrow at my
heart?
Hafez’s smile, a shield, lives as
it dies.
Ghazal 35
Do your own work; don’t judge what
we have done.
We broke our hearts. Tell us what
you have done.
God created Adam out of nothing.
No man knows the miracle you have
done.
I am the reed; his lips hold my
desire.
The wind tells me my job’s only
half done.
The beggar stands removed from
paradise.
Between these worlds you’ve made us
stand alone.
Love’s ecstasy overwhelmed my
being.
My mind couldn’t grasp what the
heart has done.
Don’t fight the beloved’s violence
toward you.
By his strict outrage true justice
was done.
Hafez, enough of your poems. Stop
here.
The world feels the power your verse
has done.
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| Roger Sedarat |
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