Page:Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (tr. Whinfield, 1883).djvu/350

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THE QUATRAINS OF

438.

O rose! all beauties' charms thou dost excel,
As wine excels the pearl within its shell;
    O fortune! thou dost ever show thyself
More strange, although I seem to know thee well!


439.

From this world's kitchen crave not to obtain
Those dainties, seeming real, but really vain,
    Which greedy worldlings gorge to their own loss;
Renounce that loss, so loss shall prove thy gain!


440.

Plot not of nights, thy fellows' peace to blight.
So that they cry to God the live-long night;
    Nor plume thee on thy wealth and might, which thieves
May steal by night, or death, or fortune's might.


438.   N.   Mimání, You resemble.

439.   L. N. B.

440.   N.   Tá bar nikashand "Let us abstain from oppressing people, so that they may not heave a sigh, saying, O Lord."