The Caliph

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

Once in Baghdad the caliph Almamon
had built a palace more beautiful, more magnificent,
than that of Solomon had ever been.
A hundred alabaster columns formed its portico;
gold, jasper, azure adorned the courtyard;
in the apartments embellished with sculpture,
beneath cedar panels, one saw united
the treasures of luxury and those of nature,
flowers, diamonds, perfumes, greenery,
fragrant myrtles, masterpieces of art,
and leaping fountains
rolling their bounding waves
beside beds of brocade.
Near this beautiful palace, right before the entrance,
a narrow thatched cottage, ancient and dilapidated,
was the humble retreat of a poor weaver.
There, content with the small product
of great labor, without debt and without painful cares,
the good old man, free, forgotten,
spent days sweet and peaceful,
not envious, not envied.
I have already said that his retreat
masked the front of the palace.
The vizier first wants, without form of trial,
that the little house be demolished:
but the caliph wants that first it be bought.
They had to obey, they go to the worker,
they bring him gold. No, keep your sum,
answers gently the poor man;
I need nothing with my workshop.
And as for my house, I cannot part with it:
it is there that I was born, it is there that my father died,
I intend to die there too.
The caliph, if he wishes, can drive me from here,
he can destroy my cottage;
but, if he does, he will see me
come, every morning, on the last stone
sit and weep my misery:
I know Almamon, his heart will grieve.
This insolent speech excited the anger
of the vizier, who wanted to punish this rash man
and immediately raze his wretched house.
But the caliph said to him: no,
I order that at my expense it be repaired;
my glory depends on its duration:
I want our descendants, considering it,
to find in it an august monument of my reign;
seeing the palace, they will say, he was great;
seeing the cottage, they will say, he was just.

Florian

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

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