Sol 5.6

  1. The cup is the axis of joy and rapture;

    so delight in it before calamities descend.

  2. And behold the night—how it is rent apart

    by dawn’s banner, its streamers gleaming white,

  3. like a monk who yearned for God in ecstasy

    and rent his outer robe in his rapture.

  4. For today is a day whose every aspect has grown clear,

    with life’s pure ease and a wondrous prospect

  5. of a burnished sweep, stretching on unbroken,

    as though it were the sheen upon the faces of sword blades.

  6. Its depths tremble before me, just as

    the vitals of a lovesick, ailing wanderer tremble.

  7. And palaces overlook it,

    shining while night wears veils of black—

  8. white palaces that, when the sun draws near its setting,

    you would think had edges fashioned from gold.

Sol 5.6