The Author and the Mouse

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

An author complained that his best writings
were gnawed by mice.
In vain he changed his bookcase,
set every kind of rat trap,
and kept good cats;
nothing worked: prose, verse, drama, history,
everything was nibbled; the cursed mice
respected a hero and his glory no more
than the telling of a victory,
or a little bouquet for Chloris.
Our man, in despair, and one may well believe me,
to upset an author, little is enough,
throws a bit of arsenic into the inkwell;
then, in his anger, he writes.
As he had foreseen, the mice nibbled,
and died.
Serves them right, you will say; this author was right.
Far be it from me to believe so: there is no volume
that has not been bitten, bad or good;
and one dishonors one’s pen
by dipping it in poison.

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-author-and-the-mouse-jean-pierre-claris-de-florian/