41 quotes
No longer hug your grief and vain despair
But in this unjust world be just and fair
And since the substance of the world is naught
Deem yourself naught and so shake off dull care.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
You see the world but all you see is naught,
And all you say and all you hear is naught,
Naught the four quarters of the mighty earth,
The secrets treasured in your chamber naught.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Since no one can assure thee of the morrow
Rejoice thy heart to-day and banish sorrow
With moon-bright wine, fair moon! the moon in heaven
Will look for us in vain on many a morrow.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Open the door! O warder best and purest,
And guide the way, O thou, of guides the surest!
Directors born of men shall not direct me,
Their counsel comes to nought, but thou endurest.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
To-day to love and rapture we have soared,
To-day in Magian precincts wine adored,
And rapt beyond ourselves we do abide,
Within that tavern, ‘Am I not your Lord?’
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Tn taverns better far commune with Thee
Than pray in mosques and fail Thy face to see!
O first and last of all thy creatures Thou,
'Tis thine to burn and thine to cherish me.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Fate will not bend to humour man’s caprice,
So vaunt not human powers but hold your peace,
Here must we stay, weighed down with grief for this,
That we were born so late, so soon decease.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
On that dread day when wrath shall rend the sky,
And darkness dim the bright stars’ galaxy,
I’ll seize the Loved One by the skirt and cry,
‘Why hast thou doomed these guiltless ones to die?’
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
I saw a busy potter by the way
Kneading with might and main a lump of clay;
And lo! the clay cried ‘Use me tenderly,
I was a man myself but yesterday.’
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Whilom, ere youth’s conceit had waned, me thought
Answers to all life’s problems I had wrought;
But now, grown old and wise, too late I see
My life is spent, and all my lore is nought.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Down rain the tears from skies enwrapt in gloom
Without this wine the tulips could not bloom.
As now these flowerets yield delight to me
So shall my dust yield flowers, God knows for whom.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
We come and go, but for the gain, where is it?
And spin life’s woof, but for the warp, where is it?
And many a righteous man has burned to dust
In heaven’s blue rondure, but their smoke where is it?
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Nor you nor I can read the etern decree
To that enigma we can find no key
They talk of you and me behind the veil
But if the veil be lifted, where are we?
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
So many cups of wine will I consume
Its bouquet shall exhale from out my tomb;
And every one that passes by shall halt,
And reel and stagger with that mighty fume.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
My body’s life and strength proceed from Thee,
My soul within and spirit are of Thee,
My being is of Thee and Thou art mine,
And I am thine, since I am lost in Thee.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
If the heart knew life’s secrets here below,
At death ’twould know God’s secret’s too, I trow;
But if you know naught here, while still yourself,
To-morrow, stripped of self, what can you know?
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Ah! thou hast snared this head though white as snow,
Which oft has vowed the wine-cup to forego,
And wrecked the mansion long resolve did build,
And rent the vesture penitence did sew.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
You know the secret of this life my dear
Then why remain a prey to useless fear?
Bend things to suit your whims you cannot; yet
Cheer up for the few moments you are here.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
When I am dead, with wine my body lave,
For obit chant a bacchanalian stave,
And if you need me at the day of doom,
Beneath the tavern threshold seek my grave
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
He brought me hither to my great surprise
From life I gather but a dark surmise;
I go perforce. Why come? Why live? Why go?
I ask these questions, but find no replies.
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)