XXX.

What, without asking, hither hurried _Whence_? And, without asking, _Whither_ hurried hence! Oh, many a Cup of this forbidden Wine Must drown the memory of that insolence!

This quatrain owes its origin to two ruba'iyat in O., viz., 21 and 151.

Seeing that my coming was not in my power at the Day of Creation,[47] And that my undesired departure hence is a purpose fixed (for me), Get up and gird well thy loins, O nimble cup-bearer, For I will wash down the misery of the world in wine.

_Ref._: O. 21, C. 49, L. 94, B. 90, B. ii. 86, P. v. 123.--W. 110, V. 94.

Had I charge of the matter I would not have come, And, likewise, could I control my going, how should I have gone? There could have been nothing better than that in this world I had neither come, nor gone, nor lived?

_Ref._: O. 157, C. 494, L. 732, B. 720, P. 88, B. ii. 590 and 593, P. iv. 17, P. v. 130.--W. 490, E.C. 30, N. 450, V. 785.