attention must be paid

13th century Persian poetry¹² by Amir Khusrau:

Tonight came the news that you would come
Let my head be sacrificed on the road by which you arrive
All the gazelles in the desert have beheaded themselves
Hopeful that one day you will come to hunt them
The attraction of love will not leave you unmoved
If you don’t come to my funeral, you’ll come to my grave
My soul has come to my lips, come so I may remain alive
After I am no longer, for what purpose will you come?

1. For those that care, it’s a form called ghazal. [↩]
2. In a ghazal the second line of each couplet must end with the same word. In this example, the repeated words are خواهی آمد (roughly, ‘you will come’; used in different ways in each line). Neat stuff. [↩]