Panjakent Local Customs

Bring me yon wine which you
might'st call a melted ruby in its cup,
Or like a scimitar unsheathed,
in the sun's noontide light held up.
Thou might'st call the cup the cloud,
the wine, the raindrop from it cast,
Or say the joy that fills the heart
whose prayer, long looked-for, comes at last.
Were there no wine all hearts would be a desert waste,
forlorn and black,
But were our last life-breath extinct,
the sight of wine would bring it back.
O! if an eagle would but swoop,
and bear the wine up to the sky,
Far out of reach of all the base,
who would not shout, "well done!" as I"?

Abu Abdullah Jafar ibne Mohammad Rudaki
Born Rudak, near Panjakent, 858 CE
Died Bukhara 941 CE