This is Hafiz translated by Elizabeth T. Gray, whose translations I haven’t found faulted for anything but a lack of lyricism! There are apparently a ton of Hafiz translations that I obvs can’t judge, I’m just using this one because it was one people kept referring to as pedestrian and literal (which I think is a p good antidote to Ladinsky.)
GHAZAL
[Hijab-i chehr-i jan mishavad ghubar-i manam]
The dust of my body veils the face of my soul.
Happy the moment I can pull the veil from that face.
Such a cage is unjust, because my voice is beautiful.
I am a bird of Heaven’s garden. I will go there.
Where I was and why I came are not clear.
It’s too bad I don’t understand.
How can I circumambulate the vast expanse of Heaven
when I am boarded up in the mud brick house of my body?
If the scent of joy spills from my heart’s blood, don’t be surprised,
for it is like the musk sac of a stag from Khotan.
Don’t be distracted by the flickering of my gold-embroidered shirt,
for hidden fires blaze beneath it.
Come, take Hafiz’s life from him.
As long as there is you, no one will hear from me that I am I.
(Source: littlestarjournal.com)
