XVI
I said: "O Monarch of the lovely, a stranger seeks thy grace this day."
I heard: "The heart's deceitful guidance inclines the stranger from
his way."
Exclaimed I then: "One moment tarry!" "Nay," was the answer, "let me go;
How can the home-bred child be troubled by stories of a stranger's
woe?"
Shall one who, gently nurtured, slumbers with royal ermine for a bed,
"Care if on rocks or thorns reposing the stranger rests his weary head?"
O thou whose locks hold fast on fetters so many a soul known long ago,
How strange that musky mole and charming upon thy cheek of vermil glow!
Strange is that ant-like down's appearance circling the oval of thy
face;
Yet musky shade is not a stranger within the Hall which paintings
grace.[18]
A crimson tint, from wine reflected gleams in that face of moonlight
sheen;
E'en as the bloom of syrtis, strangely, o'er clusters of the pale
Nasrín.[19]
I said: "O thou, whose lock so night-black is evening in the
stranger's sight,
Be heedful if, at break of morning, the stranger sorrow for his
plight."
"Háfiz," the answer was, "familiars
Stand in amaze at my renown;
It is no marvel if a stranger
In weariness and grief sit down."