Popularity - Sung Yü

The eagle is king of the birds; among fishes
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?

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Sung Yü [Song Yu] (c.298–263 BC) China
Translator not stated
Source: The world's wit and humor: an encyclopedia of the classic wit and humor of all ages and nations, Lionel Strachey, The Review of reviews company, 1906