The Support of Empires

Poem by Victor Hugo Themes Politics, ReligionPeriod 19th century

Since this world exists, it behooves us to tolerate it.
Let us know how to consider beings without anger.
This man is the bourgeois of the century in which we live.
Formerly he sold tallow and soaps,
Now he is rich; he has meadows, woods, vineyards.
He detests the people, he does not like the nobles;
Being the son of a porter, he finds in this time
Useless that one be a son of the Montmorency.
He is severe. He is virtuous. He is a member,
Having good carpets under his feet in December,
Of the great party of order and honest people.
He hates lovers and the intelligent;
He gives a little alms, he practices a little usury;
He says of holy progress, of pure liberty,
Of the right of nations: I do not want that!
He has the coarse common sense of dear Sancho Panza
Who would let Cervantes die in the hospital;
He admires Boileau, caresses the maidservants,
And cries, after having crumpled Jeanneton,
At the immorality of the serial novel.
At the mass where without fail he goes every Sunday,
He carries under his arm a Jesus gilt on the edges,
The crèche, the calvary, and the Dies illa.
— Not that between us I believe in that nonsense,
He tells us. — If he goes, it is due to his glory,
It is that the vile people will believe, seeing him believe,
It is that these people must be stupefied, for they are hungry,
It is that some kind of good God is necessary in the end.
Thereupon, stand aside, the suisse strikes, he enters,
He displays on the pew a majestic belly,
Proud to feel that he takes, in his devotion,
The people in leash and God under his protection.

Victor Hugo

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

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-the-support-of-empires-victor-hugo/