The Stranger Before the Beloved: A Meditation on Hafez’s Ghazal “Goftam Ey Sultan-e Khuban”

In Persian mystic literature, few themes are as enduring as ghurba — estrangement. It is the ache of the soul that has fallen from its homeland of light and now wanders in the dust of separation. Hafez, the poet who made the music of longing immortal, captured this feeling in many of his ghazals, but nowhere more gently than in the poem that begins:
“Goftam ey sultan-e khuban, rahm kon bar in gharib.”

I said: O King of the Beautiful, have mercy on this stranger.

Here, Hafez speaks as both lover and pilgrim. The Beloved is “Sultan,” a word that suggests not only beauty but sovereignty — a being whose mere glance commands devotion. Yet the poet introduces himself not as a hero of passion, but as gharib — a stranger, a lonely soul exiled from the beloved’s court. From this single contrast between “Sultan” and “Gharib,” the whole ghazal unfolds: the majesty of divine beauty and the humility of the human heart.

1. Mercy and Misguidance

گفتم ای سلطان خوبان رحم کن بر این غریب
گفت در دنبال دل ره گم کند مسکین غریب
I said: O King of the Beautiful, have mercy on this stranger.
He said: Whoever follows the heart, poor soul, will lose the way.

This exchange is both tender and devastating. The lover pleads for compassion, but the Beloved replies that losing the path is the very nature of one who follows love. In mystical language, the “heart” (del) is the compass to …