A nightingale, inebriate [with love of the rose], within a garden saw the roses laughing with a cup of wine. To me he came and whispered in my ear, in tones appropriate to the circumstance: Be on thy guard, my friend; one cannot hold the life that slips away. 80. Naught is thy body but a tent, Khayyam, thy soul is its inhabitant, and its last, long home annihilation is. When thy soul leaves the tent, the slaves arise and strike it ere they pitch it for the oncoming soul. 81. Khayyam, who sewed the tents of philosophic lore, is suddenly engulfed within the crucible of grief, and there is burned. The shears of Fate have cut the thread of his existence; the Auctioneer of Life has sold him for a song. 82. In springtime let me sit upon the edge of a broad field with one fair girl, and wine in plenty if wine is at hand. Though this may culpable be thought, I should be worse than any dog did I not dream of Paradise. 83. Rose-colored wine in crystal cups delights. It charms when sipped to lutes' melodious airs or to the plaintive throbbing of the harp. The devotee who knows not of the joy that is in wine is charming [to himself] or when a thousand miles between us yawn. 84. The time we pass in this world has no worth without the wine-cup and the wine. It also needs the swelling sound of Irak's flute. Incessant watching of things here below has told me that in pleasure and in joy alone are worth: the rest is naught. 85. Be on thy guard, my friend, for soon thou wilt be separate from thy soul; thou then shalt go behind the curtain of God's secrecy. Drink, for thou knowest not whence thou here hast come; make haste, for thou art ignorant where thou shalt go. 86. Since we must die, why do we live? Why agonize to reach a problematic bliss? Since, for some unknown cause, we may not here remain, why not concern ourselves about the future pilgrimage? Why disregard our fate? 87. Occasion makes me sing the praise of wine when I surround myself with men and things I love. O Devotee! canst thou be happy here below knowing that wisdom is your Lord? Then know, at least, that wisdom is my slave. 88. The world will ever count me as depraved. Natheless I am not guilty, Men of Holiness! Look on yourselves and question what you are. Ye say I contravene the Koran's law. Yet I have only known the sins of drunkenness, debauchery and leasing. 89. Free yourselves from your own passions and insatiate greed and lo! you shall go out poor as a mendicant. Look, rather, unto what you are, whence you have come, and learn what you are doing and where bound. 90.