Sol 5.6

  1. By God, who told you

    of color and taste,

  2. ؟

    and what your two hands had wrought,

    O planter of the vine?

  3. Was it Adam, or Eve,

    who lured you into planting,

  4. ؟

    O drinker of the ruby wine?

    Regale me—without a cup.

  5. Had they drunk of it,

    they would not have forgotten the covenant;

  6. or had they been told of it,

    they would not have forsaken eternity.

  7. Your ruby wine was never

    of Satan’s planting,

  8. but a vine that graced

    the very nature of Paradise.

  9. Through it the spirits soar

    beyond the realm of sin,

  10. with goblets crystal-clear,

    in the delicacy of dream.

  11. The cup and the lyre—

    O goddess of beauty,

  12. O goddess of poetry,

    sing with it, sing!

  13. Sing through it a spirit

    of celestial radiance.

  14. Had it reached Noah,

    we would have lived without earth,

  15. we would have lived like dreams

    in the mind of the cosmos,

  16. in a lofty world

    that knows no sorrows.

  17. Bring it—pour for me—bring it,

    from its sealed wine jar,

  18. so through it I may forget what lies ahead

    of my predestined life.

Sol 5.6