Prevod

(Some value only foreign literature and know nothing at all of their own nation’s.) Tea, coming from the Chinese empire, Met Sage along the way. She said to him, “Where are you bound, my friend?” —“To Europe, my dear friend, Where I know I fetch a handsome price.” 5 —“I,” replied Sage, “am bound for China, Where I am held in high esteem, Both for my flavour and my healing powers.[4] In Europe they treat me as a wild thing, And never have I made my fortune there.” 10 —“God go with you. Your journey will be worthwhile, For there is not a nation That does not gladly lavish praise and money On everything that comes from foreign shores.” May Sage forgive me, 15 But her maxim runs counter to commerce. If she were speaking of the literary trade, I would not argue otherwise; For there, in some, it is a vice To favour what is generally a blessing; 20 And a Spaniard who could perhaps recite Five hundred lines of Boileau and Tasso May not yet even know In what language Garcilaso wrote his verse.

[Note 4: The Chinese prize sage so highly that for one chest of this herb they commonly give two, and sometimes three, of green tea. See the Dictionary of Natural History by M. Valmont de Bomare, under the entry Sauge.]