Hafez · Ghazal 255
Three couplets on separation, return and changing circumstances.
Selected couplets · English translation
Lost Joseph will return to Canaan; do not grieve. The house of sorrow will one day become a garden; do not grieve. Sorrowful heart, your condition will improve; do not lose heart. This troubled mind will find its order again; do not grieve. If the turning heavens have not favoured us for a day or two, The state of the world does not remain the same; do not grieve.
A reading of the poem
This selection contains couplets 1, 2 and 4 of Hafez’s Ghazal 255. The opening recalls the story of Joseph, placing separation beside the possibility of return. The house of sorrow and the garden describe one place in two different states.
The next couplet addresses the heart directly. The repeated “do not grieve” gives the poem the form of reassurance. In the fourth couplet, its reasoning becomes explicit: circumstances do not remain fixed. Hope comes from the possibility of change, rather than a denial of present difficulty.