Drain not the bowl; save from dear hand like thine * The cup recall thy
gifts; thou, gifts of wine."
After repeating this couplet he kissed their hands and drank and was
drunk and sat swaying from side to side and pursued:—
"All drinks wherein is blood the Law unclean * Doth hold save one, the
blood shed of the vine:
Fill! fill! take all my wealth bequeathed or won * Thou fawn! a willing
ransom for those eyne."
Then the cateress crowned a cup and gave it to the portress, who took
it from her hand and thanked her and drank. Thereupon she poured again
and passed to the eldest lady who sat on the couch, and filled yet
another and handed it to the Porter. He kissed the ground before them;
and, after drinking and thanking them, he again began to recite :
"Here! Here! by Allah, here! * Cups of the sweet, the dear'
Fill me a brimming bowl * The Fount o' Life I speer
Then the Porter stood up before the mistress of the house and said, "O
lady, I am thy slave, thy Mameluke, thy white thrall, thy very
bondsman;" and he began reciting:—
"A slave of slaves there standeth at thy door * Lauding thy generous
boons and gifts galore
Beauty! may he come in awhile to 'joy * Thy charms? for Love and I part
nevermore!"
She said to him, "Drink; and health and happiness attend thy drink." So
he took the cup and kissed her hand and recited these lines in sing
song:
"I gave her brave old wine that like her cheeks * Blushed red or flame
from furnace flaring up:
She bussed the brim and said with many a smile * How durst thou deal
folk's cheek for folk to sup?
"Drink!" (said I) "these are tears of mine whose tinct * Is heart blood
sighs have boiled in the cup."