In the years

Of great distress,

He was repressed

And humiliated

And injured by hands

Of his dearest students.

Thereupon he took leave

Of his associates,

Forsook his classes,

Retired to the neighbourhood

Of the 'water margin,'

Wore skins and hair cloth,

And ate acorns and chestnuts

In the very back of beyond.

He went among animals

Without causing any confusion,

And among birds he dwelled

Without troubling their movements.

Birds and beasts did not dislike him,

But how much or less would men do so.

When times and the power

Came to be changed,

With a slow step

And an assumed air of ease,

He returned to his hometown.

There he made an end

Of all studying

And put away his books.

His former students came no more

To make their bow to him,

As they used to do before,

A number of years ago,

To be taught, . .

But their affection for him,

The true victims,

Increased the more.