141^ Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing. 



I am like a drinker on the day they go their own way, and 

 the driver rouses them for the departure to the desert, 



(a drinker of) wine that has aged in the wine-jar, until the 

 drops of its foam are like the eyes of the locust. 



A curse upon iti a curse upon itl And thou shalt never say 

 to it, when it is 'mentioned: Praise unto it! ^ 



Its love is either non-enduring, or like the joy for every pre- 

 cious thing from which one draws profit. 



But (now) I know with absolute certainty, without a doubt, 

 since the fear of god is of the best endowment: 



To guard the wealth is easier than to seek it and to wander 

 about in the country without provisions. 



A little which is kept in good order multiplies, but abun- 

 dance does not remain with corruption." 



In a second poem the same author thinks of death and 

 the grave and he asks his friends to think of him when he is 

 gone. In this mood he turns back and remembers the joy 

 which he experienced in life. Amongst the pleasures he does 

 not fail to mention also the wine: 



"And did not a maiden give him to drink of a well-tasting, 

 agreeable, cool beverage, which the people guard.? 



And has he not taken a morning-drink of wine, whose fire 

 permeates his members, be the day warm or cold?"^ 



*Amr ibn Qami'ah'^ deplores his lost youth, in which he 

 often used to sit in the wine-shop, in the following verses: 



"O woe unto me for the youth which I miss 

 (I miss in it no small thing!) 



i) A similar sentiment is expressed in Amr ibn Qami ah, XII, 6. 



3) 'Amr was a contemporary of Imruul-Qais , with whom he journeyed 

 to the Court of the Greek Emperor Justinian (C. 535 A. D.). He died on the 

 way in Asia Minor at a great age. 



