Omar Khayyam (313) “wine loosens even cast-iron shackles”

Juan Cole 07/15/2012

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Wine-bibbing makes people
less full of themselves,
and wine loosens even
cast-iron shackles.
If satan had only
tippled every night,
he would not have been cast down
from heaven for his pride.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 313/ Arberry 1949

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page