Translations from the Chinese/Vignette of a Poet
VIGNETTE OF A POET
I GAVE a lecture (said the Old Mandarin)
To some friendly people in a New Jersey town,
And they told me that the famous poet,
William Butler Yeats,
Had once lectured there,
But that nobody could hear him.
And as he murmured his beautiful wistfulnesses
(Becoming less and less audible)
The audience began to twitch.
Suddenly he said:
"My poetry always seems sad,
But it never seemed as sad as it does to-night."