Translations from the Chinese/His Experience with the Newspapers
HIS EXPERIENCE WITH THE NEWSPAPERS
WHEN the ship came up the harbor
The New York reporters
Hastened to assail me with questions.
For some curious reason
They were eager for my views
On the Fourth Dimension,
Which was then
(So I heard afterward)
A subject of violent discussion
In the Sunday Magazine Sections.
Rather pleased by their interest in such matters,
I said, in all good faith,
The Fourth Dimension is Supra-Spatial:
It bears the same relation to Space
That Space does to Flatness.
It may be said to be Continuity,
Or, speaking poetically,
It is the Shadow
That Time casts on Eternity.
But the high-spirited City Editors,
Finding these modest thoughts of mine
Insufficiently nimble,
Invented others.
They came out that afternoon with large headlines:
Aged mandarin says short skirts
Make him feel young again.