Page:Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (tr. Whinfield, 1883).djvu/252

196

In truth wine is a spirit thin as air, A limpid soul in the cup's earthen ware; No dull dense person shall he friend of mine Save wine-cups, which are dense and also rare.

O wheel of heaven! no ties of bread you feel, No ties of salt, you flay me like an eel! A woman's wheel spins clothes for man and wife, It does more good than you, heavenly wheel!

Did no fair rose my paradise adorn, would make shift to deck it with a thorn; And if I lacked my prayer-mats, beads, and Shaikh, Those Christian bells and stoles I would not scorn.