By Venus and Cupid and all the dear old heathen deities   Who are so remarkably convinient myths to take one's oath upon   I hope you will not compel me to consider you a fool   Beauvais! What an idea that is of yours - 'medicinal green!'   Think of melted emeralds instead   There beside you, you have the most marvelous cordial in all the world -   Drink, and you will find your sorrows transmuted - yourself transformed!   Even if no better result be obtained than escaping the chill you have incurred in this   Night's heavy drenching, that is surely enough!      Life without Absinthe! I can not imagine it!   For me it would be impossible!   I should hang, drown or shoot myself into infinitude,   Out of sheer rage at the continued cruelty and injustice of the world -   But with this divine nectar of Olympus I can defy misfortune and laugh at poverty   As though they were the merest bagatels      Come! - to your health, mon brave! Drink with me!