1. To a wine-seller I turned my mounts
In the still of a pitch-black night.

2. “Give me some pure wine,” I asked,
“That when mixed, glows like a lamp’s light.”

3. “I have a daughter of ten years,”
He said. I said, “That’s not for me.

4. Let me taste it to understand
The qualities that it may key.”

5. So he brought coffee dark as night
As if dyed by grape skin’s stain

6. When it shines as in a glass.
“You speak true, wine-seller. I’m fain

7. For this drink. It could fulfill
My needs, however long they reign.”

8. Seeing my joy with it, he leaned
Toward me, though dark held its reign.