Ode 255
 
1

IN all this city not a girl for me!
O girls and girls, but not the girl I mean.
If fortune be my friend, I trow that she
Will take me hence—'t is strange that I have seen
In all this city not a girl for me.

O for a light-heart sympathetic jade,
In whom one's tender troubles to confide,
Say what one means—no need to be afraid!
O for the shelter of a woman's side!
O for a light-heart sympathetic jade!

2

My little gardener, Autumn comes along;
Oft have I told thee, still hast thou forgot,
Doing thy beauty's rose such careless wrong:
Death's wind is blowing, yet thou heedest not—
My little gardener, Autumn comes along.

Time's highwayman sleeps with wide-open eye;
From his secure attack secure is none;
To-day escape, to-morrow thou shalt cry
Out upon all thy youth and beauty gone—
Time's highwayman sleeps with wide-open eye.

3

My song 's a stage, I actors am and play;
I make it all and watch it all alone;
Into my theatre, possibly, some day,
A man with eyes may come, and make it known—
My song 's a stage, I actors am and play.

To think I have been wise for forty years,
And wrought so long and hard to make me wise;
Yet made a fool of by one glance of hers—
Yea! lost it all for two narcissus eyes:
To think I have been wise for forty years!

No sorcery may match a miracle:
Rivals of HAFIZ, a forgotten tale
Of Samiri, the conjurer, doth tell—
How his poor arts 'gainst Musa* once did fail:
No sorcery may match a miracle.