1. He stoops in old age like a bending branch,
Yet hopes for fair praise, praise that is vain.

2. He yearns for the love of the mean at heart;
Can the mean love one who is truly kind?

3. He was no seeker of the honored art
Of poetry that lives when all else has died.

4. He shunned ambition. Beggared but proud,
Upright in rags, he went his destined way.

5. No bounty can merit mere carping words.
Where were the gains if his rule had stayed?

6. You scorn the pretender for his conceit.
Fashion a world, you say, and make it new!