Fate is strongest, winter is coldest,
Spring is frostiest (for it is the longest cold),
Summer is fairest with sun (the sky is then hottest),
Harvest is most glorious, as for men it brings
The year’s produce, which God sends to them.
Truth is trickiest, treasure is dearest,
As gold is dear to each man, and the wisest man
Is so through former years, and much experience.
Grief clings wondrously; clouds glide by.
--Maxims II, translated from Old English (lines 5-13)
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Some scholars translate the line, "truth is trickiest," to the near opposite, "truth is most evident." The difference stems from a discrepancy with a single letter.
