[blockquote]

“You have even surrounded the whole damn place with armed guards and vicious dogs to protect your desires.”

– Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky

This poem is entitled ‘And Applaud’ and can be found starting on page 5 in the volume I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy (Penguin, 2006) and the excerpt the quote came from in slightly larger context (but not the whole poem) is this:

Sweet Heart,
Do you really want me to speak to you
About all your attachments,

When I an see so clearly
You have built, with so much care,
Such a great brothel
To house all of your pleasures.

You have even surrounded the whole damn place
With armed guards and vicious dogs
To protect your desires

So that you can sneak away
From time to time
And try to squeeze light
Into your parched being
From a source as fruitful
As a dried date pit
That even a bird
Is wise enough to spit out.