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ANOTHER EVENING AT THE TAVERN
Sip the cup that heals pain, my friend, sip it before it dries
The great Saqi is getting ready to close the tavern.
The drink that is given generously by the Saqi
Sip it and drink deep before your smitten heart dries.
Even I, like you, fell in love with a woman
And liked to describe her as a hoori* of heaven.
She was chosen by the Saqi, when at the end of a night, He saw me
That if anything can bring me back to life it could be only 'she'.
I had lost my beloved darling of my childhood and youth
And to treat my dented heart I used to spend here some nights.
But even when drinks and smokes had little effect on me
My Saqi saw through my misery and gave her to me.
So, my heart-broken friend, be nice and be courteous
For the tavern of this Saqi is unlike that of the hideous.
Who knows, if you too can unveil your ailing plight and agony
My Saqi will give you too a woman who will love you only.
Now, my dear friend, the tavern door closes
And life and living for us will show its day's poses.
But bear it in you that the cups of drinks you sipped
Will make you wiser and sober and you won't look tripped.
And when evening draws near once more, return to the tavern
And see how my Saqi blesses you too with a hoor* from heaven!
O my poet friends, coping with broken hearts and false hopes,
I invite even you to spend some hours at the tavern.
Where my Great Saqi will fill your cups with drinks
Which will not make you drowsy nor will your senses shrink.
Ir ia a tavern made for those aggrieved men and women
Who have no desire to carry on here in this sinful cavern.
Come there as my guests O my sad and lonely poet friends
And see how my Saqi gives us the best drinks of Heaven.
I tell you but the truth when I say this of my Saqi
That none returns without tbeir thirst quenched at His tavern.
