See You Have Dancers

See you have dancers and wine and a girl like one of the angels

(If they exist),

And find a clear stream singing near its birth and a bed of moss

(If moss exists),

For loving and singing to the dancers and drinking and forgetting hell

(If hell exists),

Because this is a pastime better than paradise

(If paradise exists).

From the Persian of Omar Khayyam (eleventh century).