Original content

English translation

Nezami - may God the Exalted have mercy on him. He is from Ganja, and his virtues and perfections are evident and need no exposition. The subtleties, fine points, and truths that he set down in the book Panj Ganj (The Five Treasures) are not attainable by anyone; indeed they are beyond the capacity of humankind. Outside of that book, little verse has been transmitted from him, and this ghazal is among his words: Grain by grain, my torment is from that wheat-hued face, for all night my face, pale as straw, is drenched in blood because of it. His grain of wheat bears fresh hyacinth as its fruit; his smallest ear of grain is the very Ear of the heavens (Spica). I ate no fruit from it; my patience ate wheat because of it, for out of paradise, through it, the wayfarer's eye is cast. From the balance of his two tresses, joyful as a stream of musk, I ask for yet more wheat, for the speech runs measured and true. From grief for him I have become like wheat, my heart split in two, and this grief for him is worth but a barleycorn - how fares Nezami?