Against Those with a Difficult Taste

Poem by Jean De La Fontaine Collection The FablesThemes ArtPeriod 17th century

Had I at birth received from Calliope
The gifts that to her lovers this Muse has promised,
I would consecrate them to Aesop’s lies:
Lies and verses have always been friends.
But I do not believe myself so cherished by Parnassus
As to know how to adorn all these fictions.
One can lend luster to their inventions;
One can, I try; let a more learned man do it.
Yet until now in a new language
I have made the Wolf speak and the Lamb answer.
I have gone further: the Trees and Plants
Have become in my work speaking creatures.
Who would not take this for an enchantment?
“Truly,” our Critics will say to me,
“You speak magnificently
Of five or six children’s tales.
– Censors, do you want some that are more authentic
And in a higher style? Here they are: “The Trojans,
“After ten years of war around their walls,
“Had wearied the Greeks, who by a thousand means,
“By a thousand assaults, by a hundred battles,
“Had not been able to finish off that proud City,
“When a wooden horse, invented by Minerva,
“By a rare and new device,
“In its enormous flanks received the wise Ulysses,
“The valiant Diomedes, impetuous Ajax,
“Which that monstrous Colossus
“With their squadrons was to carry into Troy,
“Delivering even its Gods as prey to their fury:
“An unheard-of stratagem, which paid the makers
“For their constancy and toil.”
– That’s enough, some Author of ours will say to me:
The period is long, one must catch one’s breath;
And then your Wooden Horse,
Your Heroes with their Phalanxes,
Are tales more strange
Than a Fox who cajoles a Crow about his voice:
Moreover, it ill suits you to write in such a high style.
– Well then! let’s lower our tone. “Jealous Amaryllis
“Was thinking of her Alcippe, and believed of her cares
“To have only her Sheep and her Dog as witnesses.
“Tircis, who spotted her, slips between the willows;
“He hears the shepherdess addressing these words
“To the gentle Zephyr, and begging him
“To carry them to her Lover.
– I stop you at that rhyme,
My censor will say at once;
I do not hold it legitimate,
Nor of a sufficiently great virtue:
Put back, for the better, these two verses into the melting pot.
– Accursed censor, will you be quiet?
Can I not finish my tale?
It is a very dangerous design
To undertake to please you.”
The delicate are unhappy:
Nothing can satisfy them.

Jean de La Fontaine

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-against-those-with-a-difficult-taste-jean-de-la-fontaine/