Ghazal No. 16

Learn how to put a rosary bead on the sacred thread, and if your eyes see double, then learn how not to see.

Come forth like fragrance from the closet of the bud, mix with the morning breeze, and thus learn how to blow.

If you have been created as a humble drop of dew, arise and learn how to fall on a tulip’s heart.

If you have been created as a thorn adhering to a fresh-blown rose, maintain the garden’s honour: Learn how to prick.

If you are weeded by the gardener out of your own flower-bed, learn how to grow afresh as grass.

So that you come out stronger and more bitter still, remain in the wine cellar, and be seasoned there.

How long will you remain under another’s wings? Learn how to fly with freedom in the garden air.

When I knocked at the tavern door, the tavern-keeper said: ‘Go, light a fire in the Harem itself, and let it set your heart aflame.’