Page:The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 08.djvu/56



Be not beguiled by world's insidious wiles;

O foolish ones, ye know her tricks and guiles;

Your precious lifetime cast not to the winds;

Haste to seek wine, and court a sweetheart's smile.

Comrades! I pray you, physic me with wine,

Make this wan amber face like rubies shine,

And, if I die, use wine to wash my corpse,

And frame my coffin out of planks of vine!

When Allah yoked the courses of the sun,

And launched the Pleiades their race to run,

My lot was fixed in fate's high chancery;

Then why blame me for wrong that fate has done?

Ah! seasoned wine oft falls to rawest fools,

And clumsiest workmen own the finest tools;

And Turki maids, fit to delight men's hearts,

Lavish their smiles on beardless boys in school!

Whilom, ere youth's conceit had waned, methought

Answers to all life's problems I had wrought;

But now, grown old and wise, too late I see

My life is spent, and all my lore is naught.

They who of prayer-mats make such great display

Are fools to bear hypocrisy's hard sway;

Strange! under cover of this saintly show

They live like heathen, and their faith betray.