Bible in Basic English
Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.
Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down:
In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.
Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.
Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.
They have overcome me, you will say, and I have no pain; they gave me blows without my feeling them: when will I be awake from my wine? I will go after it again.
— Proverbs 23:30-1964, Bible in Basic English
“They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. ”
For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole.
Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men.
Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark?
Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.
Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down:
In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.
Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.
Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.
They have overcome me, you will say, and I have no pain; they gave me blows without my feeling them: when will I be awake from my wine? I will go after it again.