The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906.
Sung Yu (4th Century B.C.)Popularity
T
Leviathan holds the first place.
Cleaving the far, crimson clouds,
The eagle soars upward apace,
With only the blue sky above,
Into remote realms of space;
But the grandeur of heaven and earth
Is naught to the hedge-sparrow race.
The whale through one ocean swims,
To take its course through a second;
While the minnow measures a puddle
As the width of the sea might be reckoned.
And just as with birds and fishes,
Is the case, to be sure, with man.
Here soars a resplendent eagle,
There swims huge leviathan:
Behold the philosopher sapient,
Whose fame will never grow dim;
Alone in the might of his wisdom—
Can the rabble understand him?