Poem
Mimi Khalvati
Ghazal
Ghazal
Ghazal
However large earth’s garden, mine’s enough.One rose and the shade of a vine’s enough.
I don’t want more wealth, I don’t need more dross.
The grape has its bloom and it shines enough.
Why ask for the moon? The moon’s in your cup,
a beggar, a tramp, for whom wine’s enough.
Look at the stream as it winds out of sight.
One glance, one glimpse of a chine’s enough.
Like the sun in bazaars, streaming in shafts,
any slant on the grand design’s enough.
When you’re here, my love, what more could I want?
Just mentioning love in a line’s enough.
Heaven can wait. To have found, heaven knows,
a bed and a roof so divine’s enough.
I’ve no grounds for complaint. As Hafez says,
isn’t a ghazal that he signs enough?
Reproduced by kind permission of the author and Carcanet.
© 2007, Mimi Khalvati
From: The Meanest Flower
Publisher: Carcanet, Manchester
From: The Meanest Flower
Publisher: Carcanet, Manchester
Mimi Khalvati
(Iran (Islamic Republic of), 1944)
Mimi Khalvati was born in Tehran, Iran, but grew up in England, and has made London her home. She was educated at the University of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland, and at the Drama Centre and SOAS in London. Her poetry, published by Carcanet, has amassed critical praise and been translated into nine languages. The Financial Times named her latest collection, The Meanest Flower (2007), as one of thei...
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Poems of Mimi Khalvati
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Ghazal
However large earth’s garden, mine’s enough.One rose and the shade of a vine’s enough.
I don’t want more wealth, I don’t need more dross.
The grape has its bloom and it shines enough.
Why ask for the moon? The moon’s in your cup,
a beggar, a tramp, for whom wine’s enough.
Look at the stream as it winds out of sight.
One glance, one glimpse of a chine’s enough.
Like the sun in bazaars, streaming in shafts,
any slant on the grand design’s enough.
When you’re here, my love, what more could I want?
Just mentioning love in a line’s enough.
Heaven can wait. To have found, heaven knows,
a bed and a roof so divine’s enough.
I’ve no grounds for complaint. As Hafez says,
isn’t a ghazal that he signs enough?
Reproduced by kind permission of the author and Carcanet.
From: The Meanest Flower
Ghazal
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