How long this talk about the eternity to come, and the eternity past?[63]
Now is the time of joy, there is no substitute for wine!
Both theory and practice have passed beyond my ken,
(But) Wine unties the knot of every difficulty.
Ref.: O. 107, C. 312, L. 489, B. 485, B. ii. 341, T. 213, P. v. 207.—W. 304, V. 259.
You know, my friends, with what a brave Carouse
I made a Second Marriage in my house;
Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed,
And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse.
This quatrain is translated from C. 175.
I will fill a one-maund goblet with wine,
I will enrich myself with two half-maunds of wine:
First I will thrice pronounce the divorce from learning and faith,[64]
And then I will take the daughter of the vine[65] to spouse.
Ref.: C. 175, L. 267, B. 263, P. 288, P. v. 209.—V. 271.
For «Is» and «Is-not» though with Rule and Line
And «Up-and-down» by Logic I define,
Of all that one should care to fathom, I
Was never deep in anything but—Wine.