Be welcome, Thou, who art the repose of my soul!
Thou art here, and nevertheless I cannot believe my
eyes. Oh! for the love of God, and not for the love
of my heart, drink, drink of wine, drink to the point
when I can doubt that it is Thou.
A Sheikh said to a prostitute: You are in wine.
Each instant you are taken in the toils of law. She
answered him: O Sheikh, I am all that you say; but
are you what you seem to be?
[I have already said] the entire world, like a bowl,
was rolling in a hollow which, when I slept dead drunk,
I noticed no more than if I saw a grain of barley rolling
along. Yesterday, at evening, I put myself in pawn at
the tavern for a cup of wine. The wine merchant never
ceased to say: O excellent security that here I hold.
Sometimes Thou art concealed, showing Thyself to
none; sometimes Thou revealest Thyself in all things
created. It is for Thyself, without doubt, and for Thy
pleasure that Thou hast produced these marvellous effects,
for Thou art at once the maker of the spectacle we see
and Thine own beholder.
Should you come to people the whole earth, that action
would not make a saddened soul rejoice. It would be
more to thy advantage to enslave a free man, through
thy gentleness, than to give freedom to a thousand slaves.