Always An Animal

by Luigi Pirandello (trans by Arthur D Vieli)

1867-1936

Without doing anything a lion is a lion: 
but hapless man must brave death
to have the honor of being compared
with that animal, strong, without limit.

Nourished by the soaring thoughts of an
afflicted soul, if one reaches an apex.
A grand prize awaits. Then it is said
you truly fly like an eagle.

Write a sublime poem,
that sinks in silken rhyme
of your innermost intense feelings
and they say you'll sing like a nightingale.

What must a man do to not be likened to
an animal? can he simply do nothing?
without feeling anxious or troubled?
People would then take him for a jackass.