Sufi poem beginning

Spring and all its flowers

By Hafiz

(1320 - 1389)

English version by Homayun Taba & Marguerite Theophil

  

Spring and all its flowers

          now joyously break their vow of silence.

It is time for celebration, not for lying low;

You too -- weed out those roots of sadness from your heart.

From the privacy of the harem, the virgin bud slips out,

          revealing herself under the morning star,

branding your heart and your faith

          with beauty.

Shakespeare

Our wills and fates do so contrary run 

That our devices still are overthrown,

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own. 

William Shakespeare