True Home

Since Garden of Eden is my true home

How long in this world am I going to roam? 

I feel like a beggar in a foreign land 

I should go home and be in command 

To Heaven I should go and find a retreat 

And meet my Maker and be at His feet 

When the purpose of life is so obscure 

This pain of parting I shouldn’t endure 

I shouldn’t complain and condemn my fate 

Only I am to blame for my sorry state 

Nothing have I done but thirst and lust 

I should now be good and be good I must 

And, HAFIZ, it’s time for me to decide 

And make the will of God my only guide

-- Hafiz

This poem is from a wonderful book - Hafiz, Drunk with God, Selected Odes by Khalid Hameed Shaida.

What a wonderful poem! 

What a masterful translation from Persian to English. Rhymes so perfectly without losing the meaning or adding anything extra at all. Hats off Dr. Shaida for translating the works of Hafiz and Ghalib so well. 

Normally when I read spiritual poets like Rumi, Hafiz, Ansaari, Ghalib, it is normally a stanza or two, here and there that is really captivating and mostly good for FB status update. But, here probably for the first time, I found an entire poem and highlighted the whole thing while reading it on my Kindle. 

Very glad to have discovered Hafiz. Nice addition to Rumi, Ghalib. 

Look forward to reading the other works of Dr. Shaida. I am fida over masterful translations of Shaida.

Cheers!