1. The cup remains as darkness falls
In talk, with not a word,

2. It in its silence sheds a light
While he in silence feels the hurt.

3. A poet who spent his youth
In love and loving yet,

4. His soul forgot all wisdom
And poverty and wealth.

5. Forgot both war and peace,
Forgot the lips whence he had quaffed

6. The wine that passed between their locks
In sips. Forgot the singing girls

7. Who hearkened to him.
To their leader looked for judgment.

8. Forgot the fragrance spreading wide,
Forgot the veil and turban's shroud,

9. The clouds that shower with teeming rain,
All light that Life can live among.

10. Forgot the birds that sing their song,
As flowers bloom in spring's glad dress.

11. About is still the universe
While he and space in concord dwell.

12. He's now alone. Still flows his sweat
As when he slumbered deep. Awake,

13. His soul and bones are numbed in sleep.
Mute as his books whose words still gleam,

14. A world without an eye asleep.
Does hunger bite him? In his home

15. Is still no food. The wine cup stands
Beside him ever. Still filled up.

16. Lightning smiles on him, wolves weep by,
The stars circle in the dark,

17. Dew clothes itself in varied hues
As clouds take on their garb.

18. The fragrance breathes its perfume forth,
More wine is pressed. The dew still shines,

19. The doves echo their plaintive moan.
Still lovely is the trysting place,

20. Still noble is the horseman bold.
All, all is his, no other shares.

21. Unlawful would it be to take.
Indifferent is he, though it seems

22. He cares for nothing else. Does he
Now wear a mask upon his face?

23. Like statues round him wrought of brass
Or carved from marble gleaming pure,

24. No sorrow and no happiness,
No weeping and no smiling grace.

25. A night whose bitterness would last
A thousand years. Though beauty stays

26. The ecstasy of song has died.
For him the world's a grave, the whole

27. A ruin and debris scattered wide.