In the bare and barren spaciousness

There is the blue and vast reservoir

Known as the Celestial Lake or

The Pool of Heaven, in which

There is a giant whale-fish

Several thousand feet in breadth,

While no one knows its length.

Its name is "GG" or Galaxy Guard,

Its back is like the mountain range,

While its flippers are like storm clouds

Hung all round the azure of the sky.

On a whirlwind it mounts upwards

As on the whorls of a goat's horn

For ten miles, till, far removed

From the cloudy vapours,

It bears on its back the cosmic black,

And then it shapes its course

Along the silvered trace, proceeding

On its patrol towards the fathomless. . .

Though the whole world should praise it,

It is not for that it stimulates itself

To such a great endeavour; and though

The whole world has condemned it,

It is not for that it exercise repression

Of its course--so fixed it is on the border

Between what is on high and what

Abides in the lower realms; so fixed it is

In the difference between the internal

Greatness of mind and external pettiness;

So distinctly has it marked out

The bounding limit of duty and praise.

There is always someone who takes it

As a strange creature whose wisdom,

However, would be sufficient for duties

In someone's office, even in the ministry,

Or whose conduct could secure harmony

In some regions, if not in the entire state,

Or whose virtues are befitting a leader

So that it could govern quite efficiently

In a number of foreign countries,

If not to say continents. . .

Such men are sure to look on themselves

In this manner and yet, they have smiled

And laughed at the whale's daily guarding

"The nothingness," as they designate it.

To cut it short, this shows the difference

Between the pettiness and the greatness.