Stanza 1.—When the conqueror Timur entered Shiraz it is related that he summoned Hafiz before him and said: “Of all my empire, Bokhara and Samarkand are the fairest jewels; how comes it that in thy song thou hast declared that thou would’st exchange them against the black mole on the cheek of thy mistress?” Hafiz replied: “It is because of such generosity that I am now as poor as thou seest.” The Emperor was not to be outdone in repartee: he sent the poet away a richer man by some hundreds of gold pieces.
“C’est du Molière renversé,” says Darmsteter of these lines, and quotes:—
“Si le roi m’avait donné
Paris sa grande ville,
Et qu’il me fallût quitter
L’amour de ma mie,
Je dirais au roi Henri:
Reprenez votre Paris,
J’aime mieux ma mie, ô gué,
J’aime mieux ma mie!”