Page:Poems, Emerson, 1847.djvu/213

Rh And yet his runes he rightly read,

And to his folk his message sped.

Sunshine in his heart transferred

Lighted each transparent word,

And well could honoring Persia learn

What Saadi wished to say;

For Saadi's nightly stars did burn

Brighter than Dschami's day.

Whispered the Muse in Saadi's cot:

'O gentle Saadi, listen not,

Tempted by thy praise of wit,

Or by thirst and appetite

For the talents not thine own,

To sons of contradiction.

Never, son of eastern morning,

Follow falsehood, follow scorning.

Denounce who will, who will deny,

And pile the hills to scale the sky;

Let theist, atheist, pantheist,

Define and wrangle how they list,