Agar Sabza Bodam

'If I were greenery in the lap of the desert / I would ask the morning breeze for news of you' — the sabza (greenery, fresh growth) in the desert is a precarious existence, dependent on what small moisture the desert allows. Even from this improbable position, the first act would be to ask the morning breeze (bad-e-saba, the dawn wind that in Persian poetry carries messages from the beloved) for news. The breeze is not the destination but the intermediary.

'If I were water in the embrace of the sea / I would seek you all the way to God' — water in the sea is water that has already dissolved its individual identity, already returned to its origin. From this state of dissolution, the seeking continues — to God (ta Khuda) which is the Sufi destination that simultaneously is and isn't the endpoint of the journey.

'If I were a harp with all grace and enchantment / I would rest in your loving lap' — the three transformations form a progression: desert greenery asks, sea water seeks, and the harp rests. The harp's goal is the most intimate and most passive: simply to rest in the beloved's lap and be played. The final couplet breaks the hypothetical: 'If you were kind, O my darling / From all the beautiful ones, I would praise only you' — the condition is on the beloved now, not the speaker's form.