I have heard people say that the leader of this

Or that poorly ruling state is in the vigour

Of his years and consults none but himself

As to his tyrannous course of governing.

He deals with his country as though it were

A light matter and has no regret of his faults.

Such ruler thinks lightly of his people's dying;

The dead are found all over the country

As if no smaller space could contain them

On the plains and about the mountain ranges,

They are as thick as heaps of bones to fire—

The people know not where to turn to.

I have also heard some clever men suggest

To leave the country that is well governed

And go to the state where disorder prevails.

At the door of a physician there are queues

Of those who are sick, no doubt; so, I wish

Thru what I’ve heard from them to think out

Some methods of dealing with such tyrants

And their extant regimes, if peradventure

The evils of them may be tackled and cured.

Alas! The risk is that I will go only to suffer

In the punishment of myself. The right means

In such a case will not admit of any admixture.

With such admixture, the one instrumentation

Will entail a series of other tools and methods:

Their multiplication will be embarrassed.

That sort of embarrassment will make one

Be extremely anxious. However anxious

One may be, one will not save oneself.

The sage men in the olden days first had

What they wanted to do in themselves

And only then they sought the response to it

In others. If what they wanted in themselves

Was not fixed, what leisure had they to go

And interfere with the proceedings

Of any tyrannous regime and unduly ruling?!