The Mirror of Truth

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

In the fair golden age, when the first humans,
amid a profound peace,
spent pure and serene days,
Truth roamed the world
with her mirror in her hands.
Everyone looked into it, and the sincere mirror
would trace for each the most secret of desires
without ever making them blush;
happy times, which lasted but little!
Man soon became wicked and criminal.
Truth fled to the heavens,
throwing her mirror to the earth in spite.
The poor mirror shattered.
Its fragments, which the fall scattered at random,
were lost to the common crowd.
Several centuries later their worth was recognized:
and it is since that time that we see more than one sage
carefully searching for these fragments,
sometimes finding them; but they are so small,
that no one makes use of them.
Alas! The sage himself, first of all,
never sees himself whole in them.

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-mirror-of-truth-jean-pierre-claris-de-florian/