26 Mordad 1405
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 · Summer 1405
In summer the wine-friend is most fully present and already in the process of going. The summer vintage is the year's great abundance, and it will not be summer's vintage for long — the year turns, the grapes become wine, the wine is drunk, the summer passes. More frail and fickle than I am told the Rose — in summer the rose is fully open and fully in the process of closing.
Frail and fickle is summer's nature, for wine and rose and the whole season equally. The wine-friend in summer brings the news that was promised in spring, now fully delivered.