Indirect Objects

An old professor turned a yellowed page
And studied there a hieroglyphic text
Translated by a seventh-century sage,
Who himself was by his pride perplexed:
At eighteen, the savant religious monk
Did leave his home to study ancient signs,
And made his goal to savage thought debunk
Replacing it with clarity of mind.
By thirty-two, the zealous friar had learned,
When by disease his only daughter died,
The savage mystery of life's thick knot
Could not alone by language be untied.
And so the old professor vainly sought
The truth in sign alone and present spurned.