O frowning Friend,
How much are You asking for vinegar?
You sell it as sugar when you trade with a sugar-lipped one.
You take sugar in exchange for your vinegar.
If you don’t buy, I will.
I am in love and out of my self.
O indiscreet One, what are You advising me to do?
Come close, O genie.
You don’t have a bit of bitterness in You.
You give out crowns and good fortune.
You take men to Glory.
The soul has been impregnated for You with a thousand uproars
because You are adding fuel to Your own fuel.
You are pulling my soul to dig a ditch through the mountain, like Ferhad.*
If this were not so, what is this crowbar in the hand of my soul?
Anyone who thinks that what You give is harmful
is out of his mind.
You take one rose petal
and give back a rose garden.
You take the carcass of a donkey
and give back twenty race horses.
Sometimes, You show gratitude to the one who does good deeds.
Sometimes You ignore or beat an innocent one for no reason.
When Zeyd’s**head is cracked open,
You help Amr find the way out.
Where there is famine in Damascus,
You send the rain to Cend.***
I have said so many times, “Don’t talk.”
But, that’s not your fault.
You are like a mill.
You grind whatever is put into you.
*Ferhad A Persian mythological hero. He dug a canal and brought water to the other side of the mountain for his beloved.
**Zeyd Zeyd-Amr: Fictitious names for legal treatises. The names of the plaintiff and defendant.
***Cend Town or country. Unable to identify.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 21, ghazal 120, verses 1304-1313, pages 266-267.