Poem XLII

1Make yourself like to the community, that you may feel spiritual joy;Enter the street of the tavern, that you may behold the wine-bibbers.

2Drain the cup of passion, that you may not be shamed,Shut the eyes in your head, that you may see the hidden eye.

3Open your arms, if you desire an embrace;Break the idol of clay, that you may behold the face of the Fair.

4Why, for an old woman’s sake, do you endure so large a dowry,And how long, for the sake of three loaves, will you look on the sword and the spear?

5Always at night returns the Beloved: do not eat opium to-night;Close your mouth against food, that you may taste the sweetness of the mouth.

6Lo, the cup-bearer is no tyrant, and in his assembly there is a circle:Come into the circle, be seated; how long will you regard the revolution (of time)?

7Look now, here is a bargain: give one life and receive a hundred.Cease to behave as wolves and dogs, that you may experience the Shepherd’s love.

8You said: ‘My foe took such an one away from me’:Go, renounce that person in order to contemplate the being of Him.

9Think of nothing except the creator of thought;Care for the soul is better than feeling care for one’s bread.