The Sufistic Quatrains Of Omar Khayyam Part 84

I indeed drink wine, but I commit no disorder. I stretch out my hand, but it is only to seize the cup.

Would you know why I am an adorer of wine? It is because I do not wish to imitate you and be an adorer of myself.

302.

Are you discreet enough for me to tell you in a few words what man has been from the beginning? A miserable creature, moulded in the clay of chagrin. He has, for a few years, eaten his morsel here below, and then has raised his foot and gone away.

303.

It is the rim of the wine-jar which we have chosen for our place of prayer; it is in making use of wine that we are rendered worthy of the name of man; it is in the tavern that we get back the time lost in the mosque.

304.

It is we who are the true aim of universal creation; it is we who, in the eyes of wisdom, are the essence of divine regard. The circle of this world is like a ring and, without doubt, we are the jeweled signet of it.

305.

Drunkenness has transported us from our own misery here below to untold joys; from our humble condition, it has raised our heads to the skies. Nevertheless, behold us finally freed from our thraldom to the body! Behold us returned again to the earth, whence we came!

306.

If I have eaten during the days of Ramazan, do not believe I did it through inadvertence. The fatiguing hards.h.i.+ps of the fast have so turned about my days and nights [the one for the other] that I have always believed in eating the morning repast.

307.

We have constantly heads overcome with wine; the presence of wine alone animates our society. Then leave off thy counsel, O ignorant penitent! [you see that] we are the adorers of wine, and that the lips of the object of our love are turned to our desires.

308.

This is the season of roses. Oh! I would now give rein to one of my desires. I would commit an act which infringes on the law of the Koran. Yea, for some days, in company of the fair with velvet and bright tinted cheeks spreading rose-colored wine over the green turf, I would transform the plain into a field of tulips.

309.

When in this world joy seizes us, when it gives to our complexion the brilliant l.u.s.tre of the courser of the firmament [the sun], then I love to be in a green prairie in the midst of beauties with velvet cheeks, and partake with them of this sweet green hasheesh ere going again myself under this earth covered with green sod.

310.

Never have we tasted in happiness a drop of water without the hand of grief appearing to present to us its bitter beverage. Never have we dipped a piece of bread in salt without the salt returning to re-open half-healed wounds of the heart.

311.

Take care, take good care of making noise in a tavern!

Pa.s.s the time there, but avoid all agitation. Sell the turban, sell the book [the Koran] to buy wine. Finally, let us pa.s.s through the _medresseh_ [school of the mosques], but let us not stop there.

312.

Every day, at dawn, I go to the tavern. There I give myself to the company of _kalendar_ hypocrites. O Thou, who art the master of secrets most concealed, give me faith, if Thou wishest me to apply myself to prayer.

313.

To the cares of this world, let us not accord as much value, even, as to a grain of barley; oh! let us be happy!

If we have something for breakfast, we may have nothing for dinner; oh! let us be happy! Although nothing well cooked comes to us from the kitchen, let us not address our troublesome prayers to any one; oh! let us be happy!

314.

Not a single day do I feel myself free from the troublesome bonds of this world; not for a single instant do I breathe contented with my being. I have long served an apprentices.h.i.+p to human vicissitudes, and I have not yet become master, either in that which concerns this world, or in what has to do with the other.

315.

We, in one hand, take the Koran; with the other we seize the cup: sometimes you see us carried away with that which is lawful, sometimes with what is prohibited.

We, then, beneath this azure vault, are not completely infidel, or absolutely Musulman.

316.

Present a salutation on my account to Mostapha, and afterward say to him with all the deference due: O Lord Hachemite! why, in accordance with the law of the Koran, is the sharp _doug_ [whey] lawful, yet pure wine prohibited?

317.

Present a salutation on my part to Khayyam, and then say to him: O Khayyam! you are an ignorant man. When have I said that wine was prohibited? It is lawful for intelligent men; it is prohibited only to the ignorant.

318.

O thou that l.u.s.teth night and day for the goods of this world, dost thou not reflect upon the terrible day?

Take into consideration thy last breath, come back to self, and see how time deals with others.

319.

O thou who art the summing up of the universal creation, cease for an instant to occupy thyself with gain or loss; take a cup of wine from the hand of the etern cupbearer, and free thyself thus altogether from the cares of this world and from those of the other!

320.