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And gifted of God is he who saith:
’Tis as if wine and he, indeed, who doth the goblet bear, When to the boon-companions all he doth display it,[1] were
The dancing morning sun, whose face the full moon of the dark Had handselled[2] with the Gemini,[3] that shining starry pair.
So clear and eke so subtle is its essence that, as ’twere The life itself, through every vein and member it doth fare.
And how excellent is the saying of the poet:
The moon of the full of beauty lay the night in my embrace And the sun in the sphere of the cups was not eclipsed a moment’s space;
And still I gazed on the fire, whereto the Magians them prostrate, As from the flagon it did prostrate itself before my face.
And that of another:
Through all the joints it runneth, as in one, Who hath been sick, the tides of healing run.
And yet another:
I marvel at those who first pressed it and tried, How they left us the water of life and yet died!
And yet goodlier is the saying of Abou Nuwas:
Have done and leave to blame me, for blame but angers me, And give me that, for med’cine, that caused my malady;
A yellow one,[4] whose precincts nor grief nor sorrow haunt, And if a stone but touch her, ’tis straightway moved to glee.
She cometh in her flagon, midmost the darksome night, And by her light the dwelling illumined straight we see.
From a kaze-owner take it,[5] attired as if she had A yard;[6] two lovers, wencher and sodomite, hath she;—
- ↑ As if it were a bride. See Vol. VII. p. 333, notes 3 and 5.
- ↑ See notes, Vol. VIII. pp. 65, 74.
- ↑ i.e. the cupbearer’s eyes.
- ↑ i.e. light-coloured wine.
- ↑ i.e. the cup.
- ↑ It was common with debauchees of the type of Abou Nuwas to employ girls dressed as boys (and known from that circumstance as ghulamiyeh or she-boys) as cupbearers at their carouses.
