C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Prophet

Translation of John Pollen

AH! tell me not he prudence quite forgot;

That he himself for his own fate’s to blame.

Clearer than we, he saw that man cannot

Both serve the good and save himself from flame.

But men he loved with higher, broader glow;

His soul for worldly honors did not sigh;

For self alone he could not live below,

But for the sake of others he could die.

Thus thought he—and to die, for him, was gain.

He will not say that “life to him was dear”;

He will not say that “death was useless pain”:

To him long since his destiny was clear.