Page:Don Quixote (Cervantes, Ormsby) Volume 1.djvu/94

Be not a meddler; no affair
⁠Of thine the life thy neighbors lead:
Be prudent; oft the random jest
⁠Recoils pon the jester's head.
Thy constant labor let it be
⁠To earn thyself an honest name,
For fooleries preserved in print
⁠Are perpetuity of shame.

A further counsel bear in mind:
⁠If that thy roof be made of glass,
It shows small wit to pick up stones
⁠To pelt the people as they pass.
Win the attention of the wise,
⁠And give the thinker food for thought;
Whoso indites frivolities,
⁠Will but by simpletons be sought.

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AMADIS OF GAUL

TO DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA.

SONNET.

Thou that didst imitate that life of mine,^[1]
⁠When I in lonely sadness on the great
⁠Rock Peña Pobre sat disconsolate.
In self-imposed penance there to pine;
Thou, whose sole beverage was the bitter brine
⁠Of thine own tears, and who withouten plate
⁠Of silver, copper, tin, in lowly state
Off the bare earth and on earth's fruits didst dine;
Live thou, of thine eternal glory sure.
⁠So long as on the round of the fourth sphere
⁠The bright Apollo shall his coursers steer.
In thy renown thou shalt remain secure.
Thy country's name in story shall endure,
⁠And thy sage author stand without a peer.

1. In allusion to Don Quixote's penance in the Sierra Morena.