The rose has flushed red, the bud has burst, <br />And drunk with joy is the nightingale <br />Hail, Sufis! lovers of wine, all hail! <br />For wine is proclaimed to a world athirst. <br />Like a rock your repentance seemed to you; <br />Behold the marvel! of what avail <br />Was your rock, for a goblet has cleft it in two! <br /> <br />Bring wine for the king and the slave at the gate <br />Alike for all is the banquet spread, <br />And drunk and sober are warmed and fed. <br />When the feast is done and the night grows late, <br />And the second door of the tavern gapes wide, <br />The low and. the mighty must bow the head <br />'Neath the archway of Life, to meet what . . . outside? <br /> <br />Except thy road through affliction pass, <br />None may reach the halting-station of mirth <br />God's treaty: Am I not Lord of the earth? <br />Man sealed with a sigh: Ah yes, alas! <br />Nor with Is nor Is Not let thy mind contend <br />Rest assured all perfection of mortal birth <br />In the great Is Not at the last shall end. <br /> <br />For Assaf's pomp, and the steeds of the wind, <br />And the speech of birds, down the wind have fled, <br />And he that was lord of them all is dead; <br />Of his mastery nothing remains behind. <br />Shoot not thy feathered arrow astray! <br />A bow-shot's length through the air it has sped, <br />And then . . . dropped down in the dusty way. <br /> <br />But to thee, oh Hafiz, to thee, oh Tongue <br />That speaks through the mouth of the slender reed, <br />What thanks to thee when thy verses speed <br />From lip to lip, and the song thou hast sung?<br /><br />Shams al-Din Hafiz Shirazi<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-rose-has-flushed-red/
