Ghazal No. 18

A wave can well be severed from the bosom of the sea, and you can well enclose the boundless sea within the channel of your private stream.

A city full of hearts can well be made to bleed with a poignant song. A garden full of flowers can well be pierced by a whiff of the morning breeze.

The mighty Gabriel can well be turned into a hand-trained sparrow. His wings can well be tied up with a single near-singed hair.

O Alexander, kingship is more frail than Jamshid’s cup. A whole world full of mirrors can be smashed with but a single stone.

If you are stable in yourself, what harm can a destructive flood do you? For you can settle at its bottom as a pearl does at the bottom of the sea.

Ascetic that I am, too proud to ask, my creed is this: That I had rather see my body break to bits than seek a medicine to keep it whole.