Wednesday 22 August 2012

Wine more than I can drink


The World has Woe more than we can know
 & Thoughts more fraught than we can think
This Cellar'd kiss I stole a score Summers ago
  Is Wine, Saqi, more than I can drink.

2 comments:

ShielaC said...

I've read something like this before. Can't think where. A translation of one of the Sufis no doubt- maybe Iraqi?
We used to have a much loved copy of E.G. Brown's 'Literary History of Persia' on the bookshelf. must have a root around for it- though I suppose it's available online for Kindle.

windwheel said...

I was thinking of those lines of Yeats at the end of the film A.I-
'Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.'

E.O. Brown's Literary History of Persia was a great favorite of mine. I think only one volume is available for Kindle on Project Guttenberg.
I've often borrowed from Brown, like his
'Whatever in all the world is Grief & Gall
They mix them up, the mixture Love they call'
to get
'Gather up all the Grief and Gall the three Worlds afford
Press in a cup; 'tis Love a la mode'

There are some wonderful scholarly studies of Arabi and Iraqi and so on, on the Web but I really should order some books. any suggestions?