The Book of the Tavern Keeper (Sakiname)

Bring on the wine! Light inspiration’s fires!
To genius, to ambition, bring fresh desires!

Once my well hoarded wealth these virtues rare,
Until Love basely did my soul ensnare.

Bring on the fluid gold! ’Tis Noah’s life boon,
And fabled treasure gives rich as Karun!

To him who thus lifts up a prayerful eye
The Gateways of Desire will open fly.

Bring on the golden fire which in Earth’s breast
Old Zoroaster sought with pious zest.

When crowned with love and wine, why should we care
Whether we pray to Earth or Fire or Air!

Bring on the wine, the dream, the dear delight!
Dawn-rosy paints the Cup of Dschem the night.

Bring on Dschem’s Magic Cup, that by its might
I may explore the secrets of the light.

Dschem’s Magic Cup bring me! Make haste, I say!
When’er you find it empty, fill it, pray.

This royal word spake Great Dschemschid of old:
“One grain of wheat will all Earth’s treasure hold.”

Bring on the cup, sparkling like Selsebil!
My pole star be it, topping Heaven’s hill.

When flute and either shed their sweetness down,
The cup I’d not exchange for King Kei’s crown.

Bring on, I say again, the virgin wine,
Unsmirched of tavern smoke and pure and fine.

Bring joy back to my heart once more, though I
Gather the gossiping world’s grudges thereby.

Bring joy’s fire back, which once should wild beasts know,
The mighty forests would be leveled low.

Alone it frees from coil of change and time,
And for me opens the tent door divine.

Bring on the wine! In it the Houris smiled!
There Heaven keeps their sweet breath undefiled.

Oh! with it I will quench this passion’s glow,
A little while at feet of Peace sit low.

Bring wine whose rosy light strikes up the sky
To greet there for me Dschemshid and King Kei!

It is then I’ll ask, when flutes shed sweetness down--
“When wore Kawusz and when Dschemshid the crown?”

Oh! life is but a substance made for song!
With song call back again the royal throng.

Let each one rule awhile beneath the light!
Let wine our dim thoughts strengthen, make more bright!

I lorded it full well the heart’s throne o’er,
Till Scorn and Sin shut fast on me the door.

Bring wine! Bring wine! Thus dissipate my night,
Bring softness to my sorrow, to darkness, light!

Its glory now upon me is richly shed,
And now the face of Wisdom’s unveilèd.

A spirit glorious was I and free.
As dust amid the dust who exiled me?

Yet when the crystal cup my hand does hold,
I see the mirrored joys of earth unfold.

At Gates of Sacrifice I bend the knee,
And though a beggar, a king seem to be.

Whenever drunken, inspired Hafiz sang,
From Heaven Sohre’s lute in answer rang.

Life is a fickle, frail inconstant thing;
Seek then within the cup joy’s doubling.

Wine lengthens out alone man’s little day,
And makes real for a space the phantom way.

Enjoy the banquet board, the candle light!
To none Life keeps the troth that she would plight.

As floating bubbles on a cup of wine,
Vanished in dust Keikobad’s might divine.

To sleep send wisely now the griefs of life,
And live not as a slave held by heart-strife.

Without the soul the body can not be,
How heart, then, without wine-soul, pray, tell me?

Again fill full the glass! Fill full, I say!
I drink to all the Kings who lived their day.

Has any, pray, escaped the thirst of Fate,
Insatiate of blood, livid with hate?

Let anger not for me thy breast inflame,
Because thou of the dust, of flame I came.

Fill full the glass! From out its finer fire
Let comfort come forth, courage, and fresh desire.

Incorporate its substance with my soul,
Since treasures vanish as sea rivers roll.

Bring wine! To match it rubies do not dare!
Let pride and grief unto the devil fare.

The rosary and cowl go with them too,
To both, well pledged for wine, a long adieu.

The treasures of the Vine Child flow most free
Wherever cloister walls frown heavily.

Should any say to thee: “Beware the sight!”
I pray thee answer only: “Friend, good night.”

Bring on the wine! I love its rosy flower.
Let me live grandly for one little hour!

Naught else can free my heart from grief a space
And show to me the great Life-Giver’s face.

Wine! Wine! that nourisheth the souls of men,
Unto the dying holds Life’s mirror up again.

Wine! Wine! My tent I’ll pitch upon the air,
And neighbor with the bright star-dwellers there.

Fill full the cup again with rarest wine,
Thus fill my spirit with one more divine,

That, Tavern Keeper, double natured I
May praise thy wine the worthier thereby.

Come, Saki, let thy glory grace the feast,
Although divinely natured it is not least.

Lift up the cup! Make haste! Why shouldst thou fear?
In Heaven it is not accounted wrong as here.

Life’s substance, Saki, is thy wine to me;
Pour on! Pour on!--though all should emptied be.

To death the circling days had drawn me near,
Until I found The Wise Man’s Fountain here.

Quickly that fount of wisdom bring to me!
On Rustem’s war steed Raksch I’ll ride grandly!

And like Tuhemten’s hero wield will I
The sword of Truth till Falsehood faint and die.

Bring on the onyx-carven crystal cup!
I love its joyous fire when lifted up.

A plague be on the bowed slaves of the pen!
But Inspiration--let her call again.

Exterminate with fountains of wine-fire
The grief that gnaws the heart out of desire.

Make thine the day! Let that be Duty’s thought;
Who knows whether another’ll come or not?

All they who once were lords of life and time,
And feasted as fond lovers in their prime,

Were forced the tinsel joy-world to forego,
And now forgotten in their graves lie low.

Who toward The Tent dares lift a haughty eye?
Who counts on joy when all things else pass by?

Alas!--Alas!--that Youth speeds like the wind!
Happy alone who keepeth pure his mind.

Saki, bring wine! Beneath its magic power
I’ll own the two worlds for my little hour.

That king who stormed the world and swore to take,
A banquet is where worms their hunger slake.

From forth the tingling spheres, from Morning’s wing,
From out the mouths of Houris these words ring:

“Break through thine earthly cage, Sweet Singer, thou,
Where naught but phantoms are hast lived enow!”

“Unto the Heaven wing thy fearless flight,
To rest, and reap reward on clearer height.”

Availed it, pray, Great Dschem to rule the world,
When from his hopeless hand the cup was hurled?

To make the wine of life the red grape dies,
Therefore it needs must make my dead heart rise.

Each brick that yonder roof unto was brought
Was some once mighty head, now dust and naught.

With royal blood the clefts of earth are filled,
And Beauty’s dust upon the wind is spilled.

One haughty at The Banquet boasted loud,
Up-swinging high the cup before the crowd.

“The jest and scorn of Heaven here is seen:
The great it humbles and exalts the mean.”

Darius, mortals excelling so far,
The assembled kings of earth less kingly are,

As softly stole away when Death cried “Come!”
As if he ne’er had stood beneath the sun.

Away now to thy king! For me say this:
Thou who dost bravely wear Dschem’s crown I wis--

Seek well the beggar out, his hunger still,
Ere yet the Cup of Dschem is thine to fill.

All needlessly the cares of earth confine
Since freedom waits for all within the wine!

And now that such a king the scepter owns
As never found an equal upon thrones,

Defender of the faith, of peace and right,
Of Kingly Kaianian, star most bright,

Give length of days, give good health to our king,
Conquest unto his nation, honor bring.

So long as wrong and right draw not a-nigh,
And Bull and Ram pasture within the sky,

So long, God grant, may Shah Mansur remain,
And blessed be the years o’er which he reign!

In wine which ripens in the glowing south
I drink to him with hand and heart and mouth!