Strange! How life’s caravan passes
Be wise, rejoice in a moment’s peace.
Wine Bearer, shed no tears for tomorrow’s pain,
For night unfailingly passes into dawn.

* * *

The trap of reason will imprison
Those who presume to bargain.
O, you the simple one,
Choose Wine over all,
Leave those who dry into raisins
Rather than grow into rich grapes on the vine!

* * *

Flee reason and the tangled webs of intellect.
Catch hold of the waves of the Beloved’s hair.
Before the destiny of the world
Takes your life,
Give your life for a Cup of Wine.

* * *

Listen to the truth I now reveal:
We are beloved, the world our lover.
Here we are now,
playing the world’s games for a while,
And then we depart,
One by one, into the Nothing.

Hakim Omar Khayyam
Ecstasy: The world of Sufi Poetry and Prayer
Nahid Angha