Friday, August 29, 2014

 

Contentment

Jean-Antoine de Baïf (1532-1589), "Du Contentement," my translation:
Let someone else, hungry for wealth, toil
in order to sort gold coins into heaps;
let someone else, wasting his years in fruitless worship
of the great (gods of the world), truckle down to them;

but may a tolerable pittance allow
my sweet life to glide by in peaceful leisure;
may a good fire on the hearth always keep me happy,
and may good wine in my cellar never run out;

and may the sweet constraint of a dear mistress
shorten the length of the most irksome nights
and brighten the light of the worst days.

In this way, happy with little, without anyone seeing me
either complain of want or praise greed,
I would neither hope for death nor fear it.
The French, from Poésies choisies de J.-A. de Baïf (Paris: Charpentier, 1874), p. 263:
Qu'un autre se travaille affamé de richesse,
Afin que par monceaux les pièces d'or il trie;
Qu'un autre usant ses ans en vaine idolatrie
Des seigneurs, dieux du monde, au talon face presse;

Mais qu'une pauvreté suportable me laisse
En paisible loisir couler ma douce vie;
Et toujours un bon feu dans le foyer me rie,
Et jamais le bon vin en ma cave ne cesse;

Et que le doux lien d'une maistresse chiere
Des plus facheuses nuits la longueur acourcisse,
Et des plus troubles jours sereine la lumiere.

Ainsi, content de peu, sans qu'on me vit ny pleindre
De la necessité, ny louer l'avarice,
La mort je ne voudroy ny souhetter ny creindre.
The first couplet recalls the first line of Tibullus 1.1: divitias alius fulvo sibi congerat auro. The last line recalls the last line of Martial 10.47: summum nec metuas diem nec optes.



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