Death

Fable by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian Period 18th century

Death, queen of the world, assembled one day,
in the underworld, her whole court.
She wished to choose a good prime minister
who would make her realms still more flourishing.
To fill this sinister post,
from the depths of black Tartarus advance with slow steps
fever, gout and war.
They were three excellent subjects;
all hell and all the earth
rendered justice to their talents.
Death welcomed them. Plague came next.
One could not deny that she had merit,
no one dared dispute anything with her;
when from a physician a visit arrived,
and then no one knew who should carry it off.
Death herself was in the balance:
but, the vices having come,
from that moment Death no longer hesitated,
she chose intemperance.

Florian

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

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