Loner 1 In the crowd of mortal beings, Do you dare to isolate yourself from the world and be alone? Let the people around you make noise, You are indifferent; snubbed, reckoned, Like a flower in the barren desert, Don't want to breathe in the breeze? 2 Even if a Balian is in the Indian jungle, Alone, thin, hated by my fellow men, Bitter as his cup of fate is, Better than a poor wretch who doesn't know how to love: Carrying a deadly load, causing endless harm, A burden that can never be shaken off. 3 He smiles—this is Sorrow's harshest irony; He speaks—cold words, not from the soul,

He acts like any other, and eats good food;— Yet, yet he longed—though feared—to die; He longs to reach, though seems to escape The final destination of that gray career. 1810 Translated by Yang Xiling