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

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THE QUATRAINS OF

291.

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.


292.

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!


293.

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.


291.   L. N. B.   Láyik . . . . man: izáfat omitted because of the intervening words.   Lumsden, ii., 250.

292.   C. L. N. A. I. J.