433.

O idol, while you are on your journey through this world, draw from the fountain-head into the pitcher, draw this salutary wine and, ere the potter makes another pitcher of my dust and thine, fill out a cup, drink it and pa.s.s me one.

434.

Be attentive, friend, and while thou still art able, lighten the grief of a loving heart, for this kingdom of grace that now thou hast will not last always, but, like so many others thou shalt unexpectedly be called.

435.

Before you are made drunk by the cup of death, before the revolutions of time are full behind you, endeavor to make a foundation here below, for you will profit nothing by going away empty-handed.

436.

It is Thou who disposest of the lot of the living and of the dead. It is Thou who governest this unruly Wheel of the Heavens. Although I am bad, I am only Thy slave, Thou art my master. Who then is guilty here below? Art Thou not the Creator of all?

437.

O my King! how can such a man as I, finding himself in the season of roses, in the midst of joyous society, surrounded by wine, by dancers, remain a pa.s.sive spectator?

Oh! to find oneself in a garden with a flask of wine and a lute are things preferable to Paradise with its houris and its Koocer.

438.

See the clearness of the light, the sparkle of the wine and of the moon, O cupbearer! See the ravishing beauty of the rose's face, like a shining ruby, O cupbearer!

Recall nothing of what belongs to the earth to this heart that burns like fire, throw it not to the wind, but bring wine, O cupbearer!

439.

O limpid wine, wine full of sheen! Fool that I am, I'd drink thee in such quant.i.ty, that all perceiving me from far would my ident.i.ty confound with thine, and say to me: O master wine! tell me, whence do you come?

440.

Be welcome, Thou, who art the repose of my soul!

Thou art here, and nevertheless I cannot believe my eyes. Oh! for the love of G.o.d, and not for the love of my heart, drink, drink of wine, drink to the point when I can doubt that it is Thou.

441.

A Sheikh said to a prost.i.tute: You are in wine.

Each instant you are taken in the toils of law. She answered him: O Sheikh, I am all that you say; but are you what you seem to be?

442.

[I have already said] the entire world, like a bowl, was rolling in a hollow which, when I slept dead drunk, I noticed no more than if I saw a grain of barley rolling along. Yesterday, at evening, I put myself in p.a.w.n at the tavern for a cup of wine. The wine merchant never ceased to say: O excellent security that here I hold.

443.

Sometimes Thou art concealed, showing Thyself to none; sometimes Thou revealest Thyself in all things created. It is for Thyself, without doubt, and for Thy pleasure that Thou hast produced these marvellous effects, for Thou art at once the maker of the spectacle we see and Thine own beholder.

444.

Should you come to people the whole earth, that action would not make a saddened soul rejoice. It would be more to thy advantage to enslave a free man, through thy gentleness, than to give freedom to a thousand slaves.

445.

They tell you not to drink, that otherwise you shall become a prey to torment, and that in the day of reckoning you will burn as fire. That may be, but the day in which wine makes you joyous is more precious than the goods of this world and those of the next.

446.

If your own satisfaction consists in casting grief into a heart free from all care, you could, friend, make mourning with your wisdom during your whole life. Go, be unhappy, then, for you are a person strangely ignorant.

447.

Each time you can procure two _mens_ of wine, drink them, in every circ.u.mstance, in all society wherever you may be; for he who does is freed from scornful looks or gestures of disdain.

448.

With a loaf of wheaten bread, two _mens_ of wine and meat in plenty, and seated in some desert spot with some young beauty decked with cheeks tinted with the tulip's blush, man hath a joy not given to any Sultan to procure.

449.

If in a city you acquire renown, you are thought to be the most wicked of men; if you retire into a corner, they regard you as a conspirator. What then is best, were you Elias or Saint Jude, is to live in the way of knowing none, and being known by none.

450.

If I were free and were allowed to use my will, if I were free from the torments of destiny and unembarra.s.sed by any sentiment of the good and bad in this world where disorder resides, oh! I would prefer not to have lived here, not to have existed, than to be forced to go away!

451.

Drink wine, my friend, for see it makes the perspiration flow upon the cheeks of the beauties of Rhei, the most beautiful creatures in the world! Oh! how long shall I repeat it to you? Yes, I have broken the bonds of all my vows. Is it not better to break the bonds of a thousand vows than to break a pitcher of wine?