See what I’ve got from the world, nothing;
The fruit of my life’s work?  Nothing:
I am the light of the party, but when I sit down, I am nothing;
I am a wine-pot, but when I'm broken, nothing.
or,
They call the Koran the Ultimate Word.
They read it occasionally but not all the time;
A text stands round the inside of the cup,
This they con at all times and in all places.
"What it might sound like"
Persian wine bowls sometimes had a line of verse engraved round the inside rim.
Reference to the magic divination cup of Jamshid by which all time and the world were
revealed to him.
or,
Awake! my soul, and haste betimes to drink,
This sun that rises all too soon shall sink,--
Come, come, O vintner, ope thy drowsy door!
We die of thirst upon the fountain’s brink.*
Le Gallienne
* This line will be recognized as the famous refrain of a ballad by Charles d'Orleans.
but Omar has in another connection this almost identical passage :--'I am racked with
thirst, and yet a fresh cool stream flows before me.'