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.