14th-century-persian-poets

"The universe will sustain only if the forests sustain."

"Arah-balan naga-rada rov Sadha ror tsuran manz Muda gharan gora Pandita ror Ruza hansa ror kuran manz."

"Akis ditut narma ta khasay, Akis jandah palas nay, Akis ditut barni-nyasay, Akis tsur ay doran Lhasay."

"Adana archana karay no me Tas Wuni pyom tsetas greki vizi nun."

"Man is the same [but] of different qualities; One is worth a pearl, another is not worth a shell. Sandal is wood, arkhor is wood, [but] Arkhor is not of any use. 1"

"Adam akay ta byun byun war — Ak layi mukhta ta ak layi na har Tsandun ti dar, arkhor ti dar Arkhor asi na barkhurdar."

"Setting out this ‘covenant’, S.A.A. Rizvi writes: In emphasizing such a covenant, Saiyid ‘Ali was acting as an ‘alim and not as a sufi. Sultan Qutub’d-Din adopted Persian dress and divorced one of his wives whom he had illegally married earlier. Occasionally he attended congregational prayers led by the Saiyid on a platform built at the site of the Kali Mandir, which he himself had helped to destroy. The demolition of the temple contravened the covenant; probably the Brahmans had not allowed Saiyid ‘Ali’s followers to stay in the temple and the infringement was used as a pretext and later a precedent set by the Saiyid in Kashmir. Truly, an alim! Hamadani (AD 1314-85) was a famous Sufi and is regarded as their patron saint by Muslims in Kashmir. His renowned dargah in Srinagar stands on the site of a Kali temple which he helped destroy."

"Mir Sayyid ‘Ali Hamadani (1314-1385) began to get Hindu temples demolished and the Hindus converted by reckless use of force throughout his sojourn in Kashmir..."

"To take one instance, Saiyid Ali Hamadani urged that the following ‘covenant’ be imposed on the Hindus: • They (the Hindus) will not build new idol temples. • They will not rebuild any existing temple which may have fallen into disrepair. • Muslim travellers will not be prevented from staying in temples. • Zimmis will courteously receive a Muslim wishing to attend their meetings. • They will not ride horses with saddle and bridle. • They will not possess swords, bows or arrows. • They will not openly practise their traditional customs amongst Muslims. • They will not mourn their dead loudly....."

"[Sayyid Ali Hamdani built his khanqah on the site of] ‘a small temple which was demolished... the credit of wiping out the vestiges of infidelity and heresy from the mirror of the conscience of the dwellers of these lands [goes to Sayyid Muhammad]."

"I trapped my breath in the bellows of my throat, and a lamp blazed up inside, showing me who I really was. I crossed the darkness holding fast to that lamp."

"I can dispel the clouds, drain the sea, or cure someone hopelessly ill. But to change the mind of a fool is beyond me."

"yi yi karu'm suy artsun yi rasini vichoarum thi mantar yihay lagamo dhahas partsun suy Parasivun tanthar."

"They lash me with insults, serenade me with curses. Their barking means nothing to me. Even if they came with soul-flowers to offer, I couldn’t care less. Untouched, I move on."

"It covers your shame, keeps you from shivering. Grass and water are the food it asks. Who taught you, priest-man, to feed this breathing thing to your thing of stone?"

"Whatever work I've done, whatever I have though, was praise with my body and praise hidden inside my head."

"I didn't believe in it for a moment but I gulped down the wine of my own voice. And then I wrestled with the darkness inside me, knocked it down, clawed at it, ripped it to shreds."

"Every man whose faith is other than predestinarian Is, according to the Prophet, even as a guebre."

"How well said the aged farmer to his son, O light of my eyes, thou wilt not reap save that which thou hast sown."

"Daughters of turbulent mind awaking their mothers’ ire, And sons who of froward mood wish ill to their sire, I see; Sherbets of sugar and rose the world to the fool supplies, But naught save his own heart’s blood the food of the wise I see; Galled by the pack-saddle’s weight the Arab’s proud steed grows old, Yet always the ass’s neck encircled with gold I see."

"Breeze which at the morning blowest, Fly, if faith and truth thou knowest, Say, to my Beloved one turning; He who with thy love is burning Dying sighs where he is hidden ‘Life without thee is forbidden.’"

"Heart, should the flood of death life’s fabric sweep away, Noah shall steer the ark o’er billows dark, despair not. Though perilous the stage, though out of sight the goal, Whithersoe’er we wend, there is an end, despair not. If love evades our grasp, and rivals press their suit, God, Lord of every change, surveys the range, despair not."

"O partridge, bird of graceful gait, say whether wouldst thou shape thy way? Be not so bold, for well we know how the religious cat can pray."

"If by the Holy Spirit’s grace the gift again be won The works which the Messias wrought by others may be done."

"None see nor hear the malice of the sky Each ear is deaf and blind is every eye Oft those who moon and sun their pillow thought Have later bricks and clay too gladly sought."

"Aloud I say it and with heart of glee, ‘Love’s slave am I and from both worlds am free.’ Can I, the bird of sacred gardens tell, Into this net of chance how first I fell?"

"Enjoy! ’twixt lip and mouth the bounds as nothing are If humbled, care not; as the rose be gay, Life’s honours which pass soon away, as nothing are."

"Regard opportunity. For when uproar fell upon the world, Hafiz struck at the cup and through grief took the corner of retirement."

"Profit by companionship; this two-doored house (i.e., life) forsaken, No pathway that can thither lead in future time is taken."

"Reckon as plunder the path of profligacy. For this track Like the path to the hidden treasure is not evident to every one."

"A Shah no other than thyself aspiring Hafiz craves; Oh! were he in thy doorway’s dust one of thy common slaves."

"If it is thy desire that the Beloved should not break the covenant, Keep thy end of the thread that He may keep his end."

"Be misery thy portion here, O Sage, or be it bliss Refer it not to other men: ’tis God who orders this."

"High birth may be a pearl of lustre, but let thine effort be To rise by deeds. Distinct is greatness from birth and pedigree."

"Spend well thy time; drink wine within the bower For when a week is gone, the flower is not; Snatch, snatch the hour that glads the heart so well For the pearl always in the shell is not."

"Even After All this time The Sun never says to the Earth,"You owe me."Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the whole sky."

"Boy, let yon liquid ruby flow, And bid thy pensive heart be glad, Whate’er the frowning zealots say: Tell them, their Eden cannot show A stream so clear as Rocnabad, A bow’r so sweet as Mosellay."

"Herrlich ist der Orient Ubers Mittelmeer gedrungen; Nur wer Hafiz liebt und kennt Weiss was Calderon gesungen."

"Sir William Jones, A Grammar of the Persian Language (1771) · Poems, Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages (1772)"

"Herman Bicknell, Hafiz of Shiraz: Selections from his Poems, Translated from the Persian (1875)"

"Anonymous, A Century of Ghazels, or, A Hundred Odes, Selected and Translated from the Diwan of Hafiz (1875)"

"And what though all the world should sink! Hafis! with thee, alone with thee Will I contend! joy, misery, The portion of us twain shall be; Like thee to love, like thee to drink,— This be my pride,—this, life to me!"

"The dimple that thy chin contains has beauty in its round, That never has been fathomed yet by myriad thoughts profound."

"Sweet are the garden, the rose, and wine, but they would not be sweet without the company of my darling."

"What necessity for a sword to slay the lover, when a glance can deprive him of half his life!"

"'Tis writ on Paradise's gate, "Woe to the dupe that yields to Fate!""

"It is a crime to seek to raise but self, Before all other men to praise but self, The pupil of the eye a lesson gives, Be all submitted to thy gaze but self."

"What holds in peace this two-fold world, let this two-fold sentence show Amity to every friend, courtesy to every foe."

"Learn meekness from the shell in ocean’s bed And pearls on one who wounds thy head bestow."

"I have shut my eye like a falcon to all the world Since my (inward) eye is open to thy beauteous countenance."