O CUPBEARER! bring the joy of youth; bring cup after cup of red wine. Bring medicine for the disease of love; bring wine, which is the balm of old and young. Do not grieve for the revolution of time, that it wheeled thus and not thus. Touch the lute in peace. Wisdom is very wearisome; bring for its neck the noose of wine. When the rose goes, say "Go gladly," and drink wine, red like the rose. If the moan of the turtle does not remain, what matter? Bring music in the jug of wine. The sun is wine and the moon the cup. Pour the sun into the moon. To drink wine is either good or bad: drink, if it be bad or if it be good. Her face cannot be seen except in a dream; bring then the medicine of sleep. Give cup after cup Hafiz; pour, whether it be sin or sanctity. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WINGED MAN by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET THE SAILOR TO HIS PARROT by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES HOME by LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA THE MOWER'S SONG by ANDREW MARVELL THE TUFT OF KELP by HERMAN MELVILLE |