And this I know; whether the one True Light
Kindle to Love, or Wrath-consume me quite,
One Flash of It within the Tavern caught
Better than in the Temple lost outright.
This quatrain is translated from O. 2.
If I talk of the mystery with Thee in a tavern,
It is better than if I make my devotions before the Mihrab[79] without Thee.
O Thou, the first and last of all created beings,
Burn me an Thou wilt, cherish me an Thou wilt.
Ref.: O. 2, C. 272, L. 427, B. 423, S.P. 221, P. 7, B. ii. 294, T. 172.—W. 262, N. 222, V. 465.
What! out of senseless Nothing to provoke
A conscious Something to resent the yoke
Of unpermitted Pleasure, under pain
Of everlasting Penalties, if broke!
It is not easy to deal with this and the three following quatrains separately, the sentiments of all four being closely interchangeable and largely identical. To avoid confusion, however, I have attempted the task. There are some scores of ruba'iyat that may be said to have contributed their imageries to the quatrain. The main sources of the first of them seem to be C. 85 and N. 226:
God, when he fashioned the clay of my body,
Knew by my making what would come of it;
(Since) there is no sin of mine without his order
Why should he seek to burn me at the Day of Resurrection?
Ref.: C. 85, L. 194, B. 191, S.P. 99, P. 18, T. 66.—W. 100, N. 99, V. 190.