Page:The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 08.djvu/74



Youth is the time to pay court to the vine,

To quaff the cup, with revelers to recline;

A flood of water once laid waste the earth,

Hence learn to lay you waste with floods of wine.

The world is baffled in its search for Thee,

Wealth can not find Thee, no, nor poverty;

Thou'rt very near us, but our ears are deaf,

Our eyes are blinded that we may not see!

Take care you never hold a drinking-bout

With an ill-tempered, ill-conditioned lout;

He'll make a vile disturbance all night long,

And vile apologies next day, no doubt.

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?

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! drink! "

Are you depressed? Then take of bhang 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!