When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you,
Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings. He will not stand before obscure people.
and put a knife to your throat if you possess a large appetite.
These people are hidden rocky reefs at your love feasts—shamelessly feasting with you, tending only to themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, doubly dead, uprooted;