Back in the 8th century, Indian scholar Bhavabhuti wrote a wonderful poem about how critics scoffed at his work, but he didn’t care because he wasn’t writing for them. It ends, ‘I write these / poems for a person / who will one day be born / with my sort of heart.’

→ This can untitled poem translated by Andrew Schelling can be found in Dropping the Bow: Poems of ancient India, (New York: White Pine Press, 2008)