Then, perhaps, it would be permitted to me
To render service to you.
On a Saying of Mencius
That was well said of Mencius:
The misfortunes of one are the entertainment of many.
When Prosperity attended the occasions of this person,
And his heart smiled within him,
He was regarded and received on all sides by his fellows
With attitudes of dignity and expressions of mandarin-like solemnity,
And his laughing heart could fetch no smile
To the faces of those about him.
But when, on a recent manifestation of evil spirits,
He was hailed before those in authority
And commanded to pay very many taels,
For the fault of possessing some morsels of chandu, the Great Tobacco,
And his heart was heavy and dark as a raincloud within him,
He was received on all sides
With attitudes of mirth and expressions of no-gravity.
Dockside Noises
There are in Limehouse many sounds;
A hundred different sounds by day and night.
The crash and mutter of the dockside railway,
The noise of quarrel, the noise of fist on face,
My country's songs, guitars, and gramophones,
The noise of boot on stone,
The noise of women bargaining their flesh,
The noise of singers in the ships,
Sounds of threat and sounds of fear,
Blasts of hammer and steel and iron,
The scream of syren, the wail of hooter,
The clangour of angry bells,
The boom of guns, the clatter of factories,
The panic of feet, and malevolent words.
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