_Stanza 1._—This poem is addressed to the Vizir of Sultan Oweis of
Baghdad, Hadji Kawameddin, who founded a college for Hafiz in Shiraz.
With true Persian exaggeration the poet must needs write to his patron
much in the same terms in which a lover would write to his mistress; but
his words, though they sound strangely to our ears, are nothing more
than the Oriental way of saying, “Awake, my St. John!”
The mystical interpretation of the first few lines is said to be: As the
wine glows in the cup like the reflection of a ruddy cheek, so in the
goblet of my heart I have seen the reflection of God, the true Beloved.
_Stanza 6._—It is related that upon a certain occasion when Hafiz was
feasting with the Vizir in the latter’s garden, a servant handed to him
a goblet of wine, and as he took it he saw in it the reflection of the
crescent moon overhead. The incident suggested this verse to him. I
should say that the anecdote was of doubtful authenticity.
X
This song is not to be found in the best editions of the Divan, and is
believed to be spurious; but it is printed in most of the popular
editions, and is as widely known as any of the poems which pass with a
better right under the name of Hafiz. It is set to a soft and well-nigh
tuneless air which sounds like dream music, or the echo of something
very beautiful coming from a great distance, the singer ending on an
almost whispered repetition of the first exquisite phrase. I have been
told that the boatmen on the Ganges sing it as they row, and the
monotonous accompaniment of the water under the oars must be even more
fitting to the melody than that of the lute strings.