The Scholar and the Farmer

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

How I love the heroes whose story I tell!
And what sweetness I find in occupying myself with them!
I do not know whether they can win me glory;
but I know they make my happiness.
With animals I wish to spend my life;
they are such good company!
I admit, however, and it is with sorrow,
that not all have the same heart.
Several whom we know, without my naming them here,
have a good share of our vices:
but I still find them less dangerous than man;
and rascal for rascal, I prefer a fox.
Thus thought a wise man,
a good farmer of my country.
For eighty years, from all the neighborhood
people came to listen to and follow his advice.
Every word he spoke was a maxim.
His example above all aided his eloquence;
and when, surrounded by his forty children,
sons, grandsons, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, daughters,
he judged lawsuits or settled families,
no one would have dared lie before his white hair.
I remember that one day into his rustic asylum
came a scholar from the city
who said to the good old man: my father, teach me
in what author, in what work,
you learned the art of being wise.
In what nation, at the court of what king,
have you been, like Ulysses,
to take lessons in justice?
Do you follow the rigorous law of Zeno?
Have you embraced the sect of Epicurus,
that of Pythagoras or of divine Plato?
Of all those gentlemen I do not know the name,
replied the old man: my book is nature;
and my only preceptor,
it is my heart.
I see the animals, I find in them the model
of the virtues I must cherish:
the dove taught me to become faithful;
watching the ant I gathered to enjoy;
my oxen teach me constancy,
my sheep gentleness, my dogs vigilance;
and if I needed advice
to love my daughters, my sons,
the hen and her chicks would serve me as example.
Thus in the universe all that I contemplate
warns me of a duty that it is sweet for me to fulfill.
I often do good in order to have pleasure,
I love and am loved, my soul is tender and pure,
and always according to my measure my reason knows how to govern my wishes:
I observe and I follow nature,
that is my secret for being happy.

Florian

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

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/fable-the-scholar-and-the-farmer-jean-pierre-claris-de-florian/