* * *
A man with an imposing hat
May prove to be a fool unbounded,
A man with golden sword and strap,
A timorous, ignoble coward.
The owners of rich flocks and herds
May live poor lives, devoid of feeling,
But simple songs with simple words
May well convey a wealth of meaning.
* * *
Fame, go away, leave the living alone!
What do you know about people?
Even for great men who stand on their own,
Laurels are frequently lethal.
Fame, my advice to you is: help the dead!
They need your prompting paternal.
Your spur won’t kill but shall rouse them instead
To relish their glory eternal.
* * *
What’s your life like, dashing riders?
«With a bad wife—black as fate!»
What’s your life like, dashing riders?
«With a good wife—life is great!»
What’s your life like, gentle women?
«With a bad man—life is sad.»
What’s your life like, gentle women?
«With a good man—just as bad.»
* * *
Lute, where are the clear and clever
Airs you used to strum?
«I play now as well as ever,
It’s your ears that hum.»
Lute, why does the music falter,
Seem so wearisome?
«It’s not I, it’s you that alter,
It’s your heart grows numb.’’
* * *
Tell me, timeless river,
Flowing past my door,
What was the most beautiful
Sight you ever saw?
With a smile the river
Wistfully replied:
«The black and clumsy boulder
Where I leapt, a child!»
* * *
Great courage in the heat of strife
Is swiftly shown, but all one’s life
To live up to a hero’s fame
Is harder than to win the name.
It’s simple to become a thief
Or traitor, for the lapse is brief,
But hard to wash the stain away
Or bear it to one’s dying day!