Unjust and Cruel Fate! The Sad Plowman

Poem by Théodore Agrippa D'Aubigné Period 16th century

Unjust and cruel fate! The sad plowman
Who has worn out his back following his plow,
Who without regret sowing the tiny seed
Squandered in his time his useless sweat,

For a winter too long stifled his labor,
Stealing the sky from him with the thickness of a cloud,
A thousand plundering ravens ravage before his eyes
The half-rotten, half-dry, half-dead ear of grain.

A rainy summer, an autumn of ice
Make the flowers and fruits strew the damp ground.
Ah! services lost! Ah! you, vain promises!

Ah! hope miscarried, useless sweats!
Ah! my time consumed in ice and in tears.
Wage of my blood, and pay of my sorrows!

(*) exhausted

Théodore Agrippa d’Aubigné

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

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