Oh! he knows each wicket shuts
One world out and one world in:
This so great, and that so small,
Yet to those plain folks within
The little world their all in all!
Just then, the waiting maids bore through
The breakfast of King Nintoku.
Quoth the Emperor, gazing round,
"Wherefore—when my meats abound—
See I not more smoke arise
From these huts beneath mine eyes?
Chimneys jut into the air,
Yet no chimney-reek is there
Telling how the household pot
Bubbles glad with gohan[1] hot!
Gild me no more galleries
If my people lose the gold!
Let my doors unplated go
If the silver leaves them cold!
This city of all tax I ease
- ↑ Boiled rice.
