Do you wish the universe to submit itself to your will?
Occupy yourself without ceasing in fortifying your soul.
Share my mood, which consists in drinking wine and
never taking to myself the cares of things here below.
The sages who have well considered this world of
dust, this sojourn of inconstancy from one end to the
other, see nothing in it agreeable but wine in ruby
cups and beautiful countenances.
Thanks to the iniquity of this Wheel of Heaven which
resembles a mirror, thanks to the periodic motion of
time which accords its favors only to the most abject,
my cheeks, hollowed like a cup, are bathed in tears; but,
like a flask, my heart is full of blood.
Yesterday [before day], in company with a charming
friend and a cup of rose-colored wine, I was seated on
the border of a brook. Before me stood the cup, that
shell, of which the pearl [contained in the cup] shed
such a brilliant light that the herald of the sun, awaking
with a start, announced the Dawn.
Forget the day which has been cut off from thy existence;
disturb not thyself about to-morrow, which has not
yet come; rest not upon that which is or that which
is no more; live happily one instant and throw not thy
life to the winds.