We are the idolaters of love, but the Musulman differs from us; we are like the pitiful ant, but Salomon is our foe. Our visages should aye be paled with love, and our apparel in rags, and yet the mart for silken stuffs is here below. 56. To drink wine and rejoice is my gospel of life. To be as indifferent to heresy as to religion is my creed. I asked the bride of the human race [the world] what her dowry was, and she answered: My dowry consists in the joy of my heart. 57. I am worthy neither of Hell nor a celestial abode; God knows from what clay he has moulded me. Heretical as a dervish and foul as a lost woman, I have neither wealth, nor fortune, nor hope of Paradise. 58. Thy passion, man, resembles in all things a house dog which never leaves his kennel. It has the slyness of the fox, it lies low like a hare, and to the rage of the tiger adds the voracity of a wolf. 59. How beautiful they are, these different greens which mingle on the edge of a brook! One thinks they must have had their birth upon the lips of one divinely fair. Place not thy foot upon them with disdain; they spring from dust which, once a face, was tinted with the colors of a rose. 60. Each heart that God illumines with the light of love, as it frequents the mosque or synagogue, inscribes its name upon the book of love, and is set free from fear of Hell while it awaits the joys of Paradise. 61. A cup of wine is better than the kingdom of Kawous, and preferable to Kobad's throne or to the realm of Thous. The sighs to which, at dawn, a lover is the prey are sweeter than the groans of praying hypocrites. 62. Though sin hath made me ugly and forlorn, not without hope am I like some idolater relying on his temple gods. So, on the morn I die of yesternight's carouse, give me some wine and call the one Beloved, for Hell and Paradise are one to me. 63. If I drink wine 'tis not for mere desire; nor for the rousing of the mob or insult to the Faith. No, 'tis for a passing knowledge of relief from self. No other motive could enwreath the cup. 64. Men claim fore-knowledge, predicating Hell or Heaven. How plain their fault! How asinine their faith! For know that if all lovers of the fair and of the cup deserve a Hell, then Paradise will be a void. 65. In Cheeban [a month] I must not embrace the vine; in Redjeb I am consecrate to Him. By right these sixty suns to Allah and his Prophet are assigned: let Ramazan in mercy bring the cooling cup again. 66. Now Ramazan has come, the vintage passed, and pledging of the cup and simple customs are afar. Yet full the wine pots are, and still untouched, and houris wait for us in fond suspense. 67.