Death and the Unfortunate Man

Fable by Jean De La Fontaine Collection The FablesThemes Death, FearPeriod 17th century

An Unfortunate Man called every day
On Death to come to his aid.
O Death, he said to her, how beautiful you seem to me!
Come quickly, come end my cruel fortune.
Death thought, in coming, to truly oblige him.
She knocks at his door, she enters, she shows herself.
What do I see! he cried, take that object from me;
How hideous it is! how its encounter
Fills me with horror and dread!
Do not come near, O Death; O Death, withdraw.
Maecenas was a gallant man:
He said somewhere: Let me be made impotent,
A legless cripple, gouty, one-armed, provided that in sum
I live, that is enough, I am more than content.
Never come, O Death; the same is said to you.

Jean de La Fontaine

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

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