Lvii.*

Ah, but my Computations, People say, Reduced the Year to better reckoning?--Nay, 'Twas only striking from the Calendar Unborn To-morrow and dead Yesterday.

This quatrain owes its inspiration to C. 381 and O. 20, ll. 3 and 4:

My enemies erroneously have called me a philosopher, God knows I am not what they have called me; But, as I have come into this nesting place of sorrow, In the end I am in a still worse plight, for I know not who I am.

Ref.: C. 381, L. 580, B. 573, B. ii. 383, T. 259.--W. 350, V. 619.

Never has grief lingered in my mind concerning two days, The day that has not yet come, and the day that is past.

Ref.: O. 20, C. 23 and 55, L. 84, S.P. 22, B. 80, P. 162, B. ii. 24 and 88, P. ii. 2, T. 22 and 305, P. v. 140 and 186.--W. 26, N. 22 and 42, V. 83.

LVIII.

And lately, by the Tavern Door agape, Came shining through the Dusk an Angel Shape Bearing a vessel on his Shoulder; and He bid me taste of it; and 'twas--the Grape!

This quatrain is a refined version of C. 297.

Yesterday, whilst drunk, I was passing a tavern, I saw a drunken old man bearing a vessel on his shoulder. I said, «Old man, does not God make thee ashamed?» He replied, «God is merciful, go, drink wine!»

Ref.: C. 297, L. 462, B. 458, S.P. 243, P. 278, T. 197.--W. 284, N. 244, V. 501.

LIX.

The Grape that can with Logic absolute The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute; The sovereign Alchemist that in a trice Life's leaden metal into Gold transmute;

This quatrain is translated from O. 77.

Drink wine, that will banish thine abundant woes. And will banish thought of the Seventy-two Sects; Avoid not the Alchemist, from whom Thou takest one draught, and he banishes a thousand calamities.

Ref.: O. 77, C. 165, L. 305, B. 301, S.P. 179, P. 283, T. 112, P. v. 152.--W. 194, V. 308.

LX.

The mighty Mahmud, Allah-breathing Lord, That all the misbelieving and black Horde Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the Soul Scatters before him with his whirlwind Sword.

This reference to Mahmoud the Ghasnavide, who made war upon the black infidels of Hindostan, comes from an apologue in the Mantik ut-tair of Ferid ud din Attar, (beginning at distich 3117). The last two lines come from O. 81, ll. 3 and 4.

Praise be to God! thou realizest that wine Is a juice that frees thy heart from a hundred pains.

Ref.: O. 81, C. 180, L. 367, B. 363, S.P. 188, P. 231, B. ii. 241, P. v. 187.--W. 203, N. 188, V. 366.