Classic Poem

If they would come quietly and bowing down before my handsome feet
plead with me to give them things, then for me it would be as
nothing to grant them my kingdom and the right to it embodied
in my fine drum! And even if they were to ask for my precious life,
I would grant it to them in this world! But that fool who makes
a joke of my resolution, he who ignores power in the powerful
is like a blind man who stumbles on a sleeping tiger, even though
everyone else has seen him very clearly. Never will that man
escape and return to his own! If I do not march against him and make him
suffer where he stands as if he were a tall trunk of bamboo, strong
and thick but trapped under the feet of a fierce elephant who feeds
on bamboo, then may my garland wither away in the embraces
of many women with thick black hair who do not
respond to me, who carry no love for me within their pure hearts!