Page:Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (tr. Whinfield, 1883).djvu/224

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
168
THE QUATRAINS OF

249.

The starry aspects are not all benign;
Why toil then after vain desires, and pine
    To lade thyself with load of fortune's boons,
Only to drop it with this life of thine?


250.

O comrades! here is filtered wine, come drink!
Pledge all your charming sweethearts, as you drink;
    'Tis the grape's blood, and this is what it says,
"To you I dedicate my life-blood! I drink!"


251.

Are you depressed? then take of bang one grain.
Of rosy grape-juice take one pint or twain;
    Sufis, you say, must not take this or that,
Then go and eat the pebbles off the plain!


249.   C. L. N. A. I. J.

250.   C. L. N. A. I. J.

251.   N.   In lines 1 and 2 scan yakjăwăkī and mănăkī, ak being the diminutive, and the ya i tankír, displacing the izáfat: Lumsden, ii. 269 (?).   Bang a narcotic, made of hemp.