O thou who art unlearned still, the quest of love essay:
Canst thou who hast not trod the path guide others on the way?
While in the school of Truth thou stay'st, from Master Love to learn,
Endeavor, though a son to-day, the father's grade to earn.
Slumber and food have held thee far from Love's exalted good:
Wouldst thou attain the goal of love, abstain from sleep and food.
If with the rays of love of truth thy heart and soul be clear,
By God! thy beauty shall outshine the sun which lights the sphere.
Wash from the dross of life thy hands, as the Path's men of old,
And winning Love's alchemic power, transmute thyself to gold.
On all thy frame, from head to foot, the light of God shall shine,
If on the Lord of Glory's path nor head nor foot be thine.
An instant plunge into God's sea, nor e'er the truth forget
That the Seven Seas' o'erwhelming tide, no hair of thine shall wet.
If once thy glancing eye repose on the Creator's face.
Thenceforth among the men who glance shall doubtless be thy place.[46]
When that which thy existence frames all upside-down shall be,
Imagine not that up and down shall be the lot of thee.
Háfiz, if ever in thy head
Dwell Union's wish serene,
Thou must become the threshold's dust
Of men whose sight is keen.