Untitled Poem
All I want to do
is get drunk with my wife
An endless glass of wine
both of us on the floor
So what if squares
look down on us?
Boring and misguided
are their miserable lives
When my wife is in the city
and I’m home
I want to cry
The moonlight
on the cypress tree
is a bitter light
No book has ever kissed me
like she does
— Hafiz
By Hafiz (c. 1320–89), published in the November/December 2012 issue of The American Poetry Review. Translated by Matthew Rohrer, who consulted earlier English versions rather than the Persian.