Don't tell the Truth!

The man proclaimed he was a genius: they scoffed and asked for proof. He looked them straight in both their eyes, said: "Sirs, the first from you." For he spoke in riddles, listen close; the meaning's right within. Cloaked only by your ignorance, the truth with fog contend. For what is meant is never said, but hinted calm and cool. It may be thin, or deeply dug, a wise man or a fool. It's best he hadn't made his claim  for they couldn't comprehend. His language used, a different tongue not known to many men. So strange it seemed to passers by when he rattled off, aloof, such pure wisdoms, undisturbed: reeking nastily of Truth. One day at last they punished him for all his brutal crimes, for all his sick serenity and all his loathsome rhymes. He was sentenced to ten thousand years of penance for mankind, to play along with normal folks: "You must only tell sweet lies!"