Page:The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 08.djvu/57



To him who would his sins extenuate,

Let pious men this verse reiterate,

"To call God's prescience the cause of sin

In wisdom's purview is but folly's prate. "

He brought me hither, and I felt surprise,

From life I gather but a dark surmise,

I go against my will;---thus, why I come,

Why live, why go, are all dark mysteries.

When I recall my grievous sins to mind,

Fire burns my breast, and tears my vision blind;

Yet, when a slave repents, is it not meet

His lord should pardon, and again be kind?

They at whose lore the whole world stands amazed,

Whose high thoughts, like Borak, to heaven are raised,

Strive to know Thee in vain, and like heaven's wheel

Their heads are turning, and their brains are dazed.

Allah hath promised wine in Paradise,

Why then should wine on earth be deemed a vice?

An Arab in his cups cut Hamzah's girths---

For that sole cause was drink declared a vice.

Now of old joys naught but the name is left,

Of all old friends but wine we are bereft,

And that wine new, but still cleave to the cup,

For save the cup, what single joy is left?