Page:Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (tr. Whinfield, 1883).djvu/366

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310
THE QUATRAINS OF

462.

Why unripe grapes are sharp, prithee explain,
And then grow sweet, while wine is sharp again?
    When one has carved a block into a lute,
Can he from that same block a pipe obtain?


463.

When dawn doth silver the dark firmament,
Why shrills the bird of dawning his lament?
    It is to show in dawn's bright looking-glass
How of thy careless life a night is spent.


464.

Cupbearer, come! from thy full-throated ewer
Pour blood-red wine, the world's despite to cure!
    Where can I find another friend like wine,
So genuine, so solacing, so pure?


462.   L. N.

463.   C. L. N. A. I. J.   So Job, "Hast spread the sky as a molten looking-glass."