From the Masnavi of Jalal-ud-din
Rumi, trans, by E. H. Whinfield.
Hafiz and Saadi
Some short quotations here following are taken from Flowers culled from Persian Gardens (Manchester, 1872):
“Everyone, whether he be abstemious or self-indulgent is searching after the Friend. Every place may be the abode of love, whether it be a mosque or a synagogue.... On thy last day, though the cup be in thy hand, thou may’st be borne away to Paradise even from the corner of the tavern.” Hafiz.
“I have heard a sweet word which was spoken by the old man of Canaan (Jacob)—‘No tongue can express what means the separation of friends.’” Hafiz.
“Neither of my own free will cast I myself into the fire; for the chain of affection was laid upon my neck. I was still at a distance when the fire began to glow, nor is this the moment that it was lighted up within me. Who shall impute it to me as a fault, that I am enchanted by my friend, that I am content in casting myself at his feet?” Saadi.
Hahn in his Albanesische Studien, already quoted (p. 20), gives some of the verses of Neçin or Nesim Bey, a Turco-Albanian poet, of which the following is an example:—
“Whate’er, my friend, or false or true,
The world may tell thee, give no ear,