With going to and fro in this sad vale Thou art grown double, and thy credit stale, Thy nails are thickened like a horse's hoof, Thy beard is ragged as an ass's tail. 423. C. L. A. I. J. A description of old age. 424. O unenlightened race of humankind, Ye are a nothing, built on empty wind! Yea, a mere nothing, hovering in the abyss, A void before you, and a void behind! 424. C. L. A. I. J. The technical name for existence between two non-existences is _Takwin_. Bl. _Ain i Akbari_, p. 198. Compare the term «_nunc stans_,» applied to Time by the Schoolmen. 425. Each morn I say, «To-night I will repent Of wine, and tavern haunts no more frequent»; But while 'tis spring, and roses are in bloom, To loose me from my promise, O consent! 425. C. L. A. I. J. 426. Vain study of philosophy eschew! Rather let tangled curls attract your view; And shed the bottle's life-blood in your cup, Or e'er death shed your blood, and feast on you. 426. C. L. N. A. B. I. J. _Bigorezi bi_, «better that you should eschew.» 427. O heart! can'st thou the darksome riddle read, Where wisest men have failed, wilt thou succeed? Quaff wine, and make thy heaven here below, Who knows if heaven above will be thy meed? 427. C. L. N. A. B. I. J. 428. They that have passed away, and gone before, Sleep in delusion's dust for evermore; Go, boy, and fetch some wine, this is the truth, Their dogmas were but air, and wind their lore! 428. C. L. N. A. B. I. J. So Ecclesiastes, «I gave my heart to know wisdom ... and perceived that this also is vanity.» 429. O heart! when on the Loved One's sweets you feed, You lose yourself, but find your Self indeed; And, when you drink of His entrancing cup, You hasten your escape from quick and dead! 429. C. L. N. A. I. J. Die to self, to live in God, your true self. See Max Müller, Hibbert Lectures, p. 375. 430. Though I am wont a wine-bibber to be, Why should the people rail and chide at me? Would that all evil actions made men drunk, For then no sober people should I see! 430. C. N. A. I. J. 431. Child of four elements and sevenfold heaven, Who fume and sweat because of these eleven, Drink! I have told you seventy times and seven, Once gone, nor hell will send you back, nor heaven. 431. C. L. N. A. I. J. 432. With many a snare Thou dost beset my way, And threatenest, if I fall therein, to slay; Thy rule resistless sways the world, yet Thou Imputest sin, when I do but obey! 432. B. N. Allah is the _Fa'il i hakiki_, the only real agent, according to the Sufi view, _Hukmi tu Kuni_, «Thou givest thy order.» 433. To Thee, whose essence baffles human thought, Our sins and righteous deeds alike seem naught, May Thy grace sober me, though drunk with sins, And pardon all the ill that I have wrought! 433. L. N. 434.