65
ADVANTAGE OF A BOOKISH UPBRINGING
WHEN the wine has done its rosy deed
(As the reputable English poet said)
I enjoy to study in tranquillity
The lovable absurdities of men.
And then my familiarity with literatures
Besteads me well,
Affording me always a scholarly explanation
For conduct seemingly eccentric.
Once, I remember,
After an evening in which Chancellor Mu Kow and myself
Had repeatedly toasted the loveliness of the moon,
Condoling her solitude
In the wide pale sky,
I lay in a perfection of comfortable thought
In a gently revolving cabbage field.
But my wife s parents
Heading the search party
Discovered me there, and cried lamentation and oxytones.
