The Sufistic Quatrains Of Omar Khayyam Part 90

414.

How long these arguments upon the five and the four, O cupbearer? In comprehending one, O cupbearer! it is difficult to grasp a hundred thousand. We are all of earth, O cupbearer! strike the harp: we are all as the wind, bring the wine, O cupbearer!

415.

How long will you speak of Ya.s.sin and Berat, O cupbearer?

Give me a treatise upon the tavern, O cupbearer!

The day that it is closed will be for me the night of Berat, O cupbearer!

416.

While you have in your body bones, veins, and nerves, place not your foot outside the limits of your destiny.

Yield never to your enemy, be that enemy Rustum, son of Zal; accept nothing which puts you under obligation to a friend, be that friend Hatim-tai.

417.

You may indeed be taken with lips tinted with the color of the ruby, you may indeed appreciate the cup of wine, you may indeed call for the noise of the drum, the sound of the harp and of the flute, but these are only trifles. G.o.d is my witness, while you do not break the bonds of this dark world, you nothing are.

418.

Bestir yourself, since you are under this tyrannic vault; drink wine, since you are in this world, a seat of woe.

And, from beginning to the end, being only earth, act like a man who is upon the earth, and not as if thou wert beneath the earth.

419.

Since you all secrets know, my friend, why be a prey to so many vain torments? Suppose things do not fall in touch with your desires, you can at least be gay while you still breathe.

420.

Everywhere I cast my eyes I believe I see the sod of Paradise and the brook of Koocer. They say the field outside of h.e.l.l is transformed into a celestial sojourn.

Rest then in that celestial place near some celestial fair.

421.

Follow no other way than that which the Kalendar follows; seek no other place than the tavern; occupy yourself only with wine, song and the friend [the Divinity]; place in your hand a cup of wine, upon your back a gourd; drink, O dear object of my heart! drink and speak not of foolish things.

422.

Do you wish life to rest upon a rock? Do you wish life for some time free to be from grief? Dwell for one instant without drinking wine, then at each breath you'll find a new attraction in existence.

423.

In this world, this house of pilferers, it is useless to count upon a friend. Listen to the counsel I give you, and confide it to no one. Bear your suffering and seek no remedy here, be happy in your sorrows and try not to divide them with another.

424.

There are two things which are the foundation of wisdom and which ought to be put among the number of the most important unproclaimed revelations. Not to eat of anything which eats of other things, and to keep oneself unsullied by all that lives.

425.

How is it that at the commencement of springtime the verjuice of the vine is sharp? And afterwards, how does it become so sweet? And then how do we find the wine so bitter? If one makes viols of a piece of wood by means of a curved knife, who would say on seeing it that a flute could be fas.h.i.+oned by the same means?

426.

Know you why, at the break of day, the early-rising c.o.c.k makes its voice heard each moment? It is to tell you, through the mirror of the morning, that one more night has slipped away from your existence, and that you are still in ignorance.

427.

Give me some of this ruby wine, tinted like the tulip.

Pour from the neck of the flask the pure blood it contains, for, to-day I can see, outside this cup of wine, no friend whose inner man is pure.

428.

Pour me, O cupbearer! some wine colored like the flowers of the Judas-tree, pour, O cupbearer! for grief comes to oppress my soul; pour for me the nectar, for it is possible that in making me a stranger to myself, it will free me one instant from the vicissitudes of this world.

429.

Thy cup, O my cupbearer! contains liquid rubies; give some to my soul, O cupbearer! Let it reflect that precious stone; put in my hand, O cupbearer, this incomparable cup, for through this I will give new life unto my soul.

430.

In philosophy, if you are an Aristotle or a Bouzourdj-mehr; in power, if you are some Roman emperor or some potentate of China, drink ever, drink wine from the cup of Djem, for the end of all is the tomb. Oh! though you are Bahram himself, the coffin is your last sojourn.

431.

I entered the studio of a potter. I watched him work at his wheel, actively occupied in moulding the necks and handles of pitchers, forming some of them like the heads of kings, others like the feet of beggars.

432.

Go, choose bliss, if you are wise, and finally you may be able to drink wine from the hand of the drinkers of eternity, but you are one of the ignorant and joy is not in you, it is not given to every ignorant one to taste the sweets that ignorance gives.