Choose dialogue
Hafiz in free verse
March 31, 2004
iranian.com
See English translation below FORSAT SHOMAR SOHABAT
Daani ke chist dowlat? Didaar yaar didan
Dar kooye oo gedaaii, bar khosrovi gozeedan.
Az jon tama’ boridan,
aasaan bovad, laaken
Az doostaan jaani moshkel tavaan boreedan
Gah chon naseem baa gol raaz
e nehofteh goftan
Gah serr e eshghbazi az bolbolaan sheneedan
Booseedan lab e yaar avval
ze dast magzaar
Kaakhar malool gardi az dast e lab gezeedan
Forsat shomaar sohbat,
kaz in do raaheh manzel
Chon bogzareem digar natvaan beham reseedan.
CHOOSE DIALOGUE
For my father
What is your fortune?
Do you not know?
Seeking your friends
To beg at their doors
In place of choosing a crown.
Simple enough it is
Not to be, daunting
To break away from
Loving friends!
Share the untold secrets with the flowers.
As the wind does
To learn the secrets of love
Listen to the nightingale.
Biting your lips and hands
Brings you nothing
But tedium.
Kiss your lover. Do not let go!
Choose dialogue
For at the two crossroads of life
Once we part
We may never meet again.
-- Shams ed-Din Mohammad Hafez (d. 1389?)
Freely translated by Majid Tehranian
March 17, 2004.
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Author
Majid Tehranian is Professor, School of Communications, University
of Hawaii at Manoa, and Director of the Toda
Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research in Honolulu,
Hawaii. His latest book is Bridging
a Gulf: Peace in West Asia (London, I. B. Tauris, 2003).
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