Basatin al-uns 71.93

71.93

I had been sitting with a few companions, / whose affection was bound up with the soul,
Having launched two ships without heed: / one of wine, the second the ship of the sea;
All had abandoned themselves to the work of the water, / whereby a hundred tumults fell upon the sea.
Like bubbles, the friends lifted bottles / to spite the crystal sphere upon the face of the water;
The flagon came to a boil like the sea, / the cup became silent like a seashell;
A moon from whose envy the sun is in torment / cast fire into the water at every moment;
On every side a heap of coral and pearls, / the senses perfumed with pure ambergris;
The singer, with a dexterous hand before the companions, / added much luster to the play of the lute;
An august assembly, most soul-nourishing, / sweeter than anything of which men speak sweetly;
All hearts made joyful by the aid of fortune, / the eye of the ill-wisher kept far away from it—
until we reached the middle of the sea, and upon that ship, from contrary winds—like those who swallow cups of wine—alteration found its way;
and its planks, which were joined together like a continuous chain-script, became dispersed and separated from one another like disconnected letters;
and, like the meaningless and disjointed words of a poet, they became arranged; and from the blow
and by the impact of the sea's mountain-like waves, it became ruined and brought to naught, like the hope of a tyrant.