O Thou whose mysterious essence is impenetrable to intelligence, Thou who carest no more for our obedience than our faults, I am drunk with sin, but the confidence that I have in Thee renders it right for me. Know Thou, that I count upon Thy pity. 392. If this world's things were only based on show, oh! then each day would be a feast. Oh! were it not for these vain threats, each could attain below the aim of his desires, without a fear. 393. O Wheel of Heaven! thou fillest constantly my heart with woe. Thou killest in me the germ of joy, with water ladening the air which, would breathe, and changest into mud the water that I drink. 394. O my heart! if thou free thyself from the grief inherent in matter, thou shalt become a soul in all its purity; thou shalt mount to the heavens, thy residence shall be the firmament. Oh! how thou shouldst suffer from shame at inhabiting the earth! 395. O potter! be attentive, if thou possessest sound reason! How long wilt thou abase man in moulding his clay? It is the finger of Feridoun, the hand of Kai-Khosrou which you thus put upon your wheel. 396. O rose! thou art the face of some young ravishing fair! O wine! thou art the ruby whose brightness joys my soul! O fateful fortune! each instant thou appearest more strange to me, and nevertheless I seem to know thee. 397. From the cookery of this world, thou only absorbest the smoke. How long, plunged in the search for being and annihilation, wilt thou be the prey of sorrow? This world contains only loss for those who attach themselves to it. Now disregard this loss, and all for thee will benefit become. 398. As for us, let us not try to torment men in their sleep; let us refrain from making them utter at midnight the lamentable cry _O my God! O my God!_ [as others do]. Rest not upon riches or beauty, for the one will take wings in the night, and the other, in the night also, will be ravished. 399. If from the commencement Thou hadst wished to make me known to _myself_, why later, hast Thou separated me from this _myself_? If from the first day Thy intention was to abandon me, why hast Thou thrown me, all amazed, into the midst of the world? 400. Oh! would to God that there existed some place of repose--that the road we follow had some settled end! Would God that, after a hundred thousand years, we could conceive the hope of one new birth of heart upon the earth as the green turf is born again! 401. While I was drawing a horoscope in the book of love, suddenly, from the burning heart of a wise man came these words. Happy is he who entertains in his dwelling a friend as beautiful as the moon, and who has in prospect a night as long as a year! 402.