VII.

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.

This is another composite quatrain, and the similarity of its sentiment to that of No. 94 (_post_) makes it somewhat difficult to allocate the parallels to it. The first two lines come from two quatrains in C. 431 and 460 (ll. 1 and 2).

Every day I resolve to repent in the evening, Repenting of the brimful goblet, and the cup; (But) now that the season of roses has come, I cannot grieve, Give penitence for repentance[27] in the season of roses, O Lord!

_Ref._: C. 431, L. 655, B. 647, B. ii. 510.--W. 425, V. 704.

The flowers are blooming, bring wine, O Saki, Abandon the practices of the zealot, O Saki.

_Ref._: C. 460, L. 684, B. 675, B. ii. 540.--V. 736.

The image of the flight of time permeates the whole of the quatrains. The precise image that FitzGerald uses in ll. 3 and 4 I find in the 24th distich of the Mantik ut-tair of Ferid ud din Attar.

The bird of the sky flutters along its appointed path.

VIII.*[28]

Whether at Naishapur or Babylon, Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run, The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop, The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.

This quatrain is taken mainly from O. 47 (C. 123). It does not occur in the first edition, and FitzGerald was evidently «reminded of it» by Nicolas, in whose reading of the text, alone, the town of Naishapur is mentioned instead of Balkh. Balkh and Babylon are constantly interchanged in Persian _belles lettres_.

Since life passes; what is Baghdad and what is Balkh? When the cup is full, what matter if it be sweet or bitter?[29] Drink wine, for often, after thee and me, this moon Will pass on from the last day of the month to the first, and from the first to the last.

_Ref._: O. 47, L. 299, B. 226, C. 123, S.P. 105, P. 51, T. 99.--W. 134, N. 105, E.C. 2, V. 236.

If closer reference for line 3 be required, it may be found in N. 18, ll. 3 and 4.

Whether our Saki holds the neck of the bottle in his hand, Or the soul of wine oozes over the rim of the cup.

_Ref._: L. 35, B. 32, S.P. 18.--W. 21, N. 18, V. 33.

«The leaves of life» recur constantly either as leaves of a tree, or of a book. FitzGerald's inspiration comes from C. 377, ll. 1 and 2. (_Vide_ also _sub._ No. 9.)

At the moment when I flee from destiny, And fall like the leaf of the vine, from the branch.

_Ref._: C. 377, L. 574, B. 567, S.P. 265, B. ii. 353, T. 249.--W. 309, N. 266, V. 614.