1. I do not care for a house whose foundations have crumbled,
Nor for its quarters however endowed.

2. I do not distract my worries in the darkness of night
With a separation as piercing as a sword.

3. Rather with the face of my beloved I sip them
Among intimates or estranged.

4. With coffee as pure as carnelian,
Of a lifetime accrued and of noble ancestry.

5. As if in a glance from the eye of its pourer,
When he pours it, there is a gleam of swords.

6. As if it and the pouring roil it
In the depths of a cup, shattering insides.

7. It seethes in the cup when he mixes it
With clear water from a precious pearl shell.

8. Symmetrically arrayed yet in disarray
Plunging in it while some float atop.

9. That is far sweeter than pausing at
A quarter whose verses grace and bless.