9 Aban 1404
Quatrain 68 of 75
“I have a Friend, a Woman-friend indeed,
More frail and fickle than I am told the Rose,—
Wine, Ruby Wine! my bosom-friend in need,
Brings smiling News of Spring before it blows.”
Reflection · Autumn 1404
In autumn wine brings something different — not the smiling news of spring before it blows, but the warm retrospect of summer now going. The autumn wine holds the summer the way a good friend holds the memory of a shared experience: accurately, warmly, without sentimentality.
More frail and fickle than the rose — in autumn both the rose and the wine are in their most honest form, beautiful because almost finished. The wine-friend in autumn brings news of what the year has been. Drink it. This is the year's autobiography in liquid form.