La Chauve-Souris, le Buisson, et le Canard.

 

Le Buisson, le Canard, et la Chauve-Souris,
Voyant tous trois qu'en leur pays
Ils faisaient petite fortune,
Vont trafiquer au loin, et font bourse commune.
Ils avaient des Comptoirs, des Facteurs, des Agents
Non moins soigneux qu'intelligents,
Des Registres exacts de mise et de recette.
Tout allait bien ; quand leur emplette,
En passant par certains endroits
Remplis d'écueils, et fort étroits,
Et de Trajet très difficile,
Alla tout emballée au fond des magasins
Qui du Tartare sont voisins.
Notre Trio poussa maint regret inutile ;
Ou plutôt il n'en poussa point,
Le plus petit Marchand est savant sur ce point ;
Pour sauver son crédit, il faut cacher sa perte.
Celle que par malheur nos gens avaient soufferte
Ne put se réparer : le cas fut découvert.
Les voilà sans crédit, sans argent, sans ressource,
Prêts à porter le bonnet vert.
Aucun ne leur ouvrit sa bourse.
Et le sort principal, et les gros intérêts,
Et les Sergents, et les procès,
Et le créancier à la porte,
Dès devant la pointe du jour,
N'occupaient le Trio qu'à chercher maint détour
Pour contenter cette cohorte.
Le Buisson accrochait les passants à tous coups.
Messieurs, leur disait-il, de grâce, apprenez-nous
En quel lieu sont les marchandises
Que certains gouffres nous ont prises.
Le plongeon sous les eaux s'en allait les chercher.
L'oiseau Chauve-Souris n'osait plus approcher
Pendant le jour nulle demeure :
Suivi de Sergents à toute heure,
En des trous il s'allait cacher.
Je connais maint detteur qui n'est ni souris-chauve,
Ni Buisson, ni Canard, ni dans tel cas tombé,
Mais simple grand Seigneur, qui tous les jours se sauve
Par un escalier dérobé.

 

 

The Bat, the Bush, and the Duck. (14)

 

A bush, duck, and bat, having found that in trade,
Confined to their country, small profits were made,
Into partnership enter'd to traffic abroad,
Their purse, held in common, well guarded from fraud.
Their factors and agents, these trading allies
Employ'd where they needed, as cautious as wise:
Their journals and ledgers, exact and discreet,
Recorded by items expense and receipt.
All throve, till an argosy, on its way home,
With a cargo worth more than their capital sum,
In attempting to pass through a dangerous strait,
Went down with its passengers, sailors, and freight,
To enrich those enormous and miserly stores,
From Tartarus distant but very few doors.
Regret was a thing which the firm could but feel;
Regret was the thing they were slow to reveal;
For the least of a merchant well knows that the weal
Of his credit requires him his loss to conceal.
But that which our trio unluckily suffer'd
Allow'd no repair, and of course was discover'd.
No money nor credit, 'twas plain to be seen
Their heads were now threaten'd with bonnets of green;[15]
And, the facts of the case being everywhere known,
No mortal would open his purse with a loan.
Debts, bailiffs, and lawsuits, and creditors gruff,
At the crack of day knocking,
(Importunity shocking!)
Our trio kept busy enough.
The bush, ever ready and on the alert,
Now caught all the people it could by the skirt:--
'Pray, sir, be so good as to tell, if you please,
If you know whereabout the old villanous seas
Have hid all our goods which they stole t' other night.
The diver, to seek them, went down out of sight.
The bat didn't venture abroad in the day,
And thus of the bailiffs kept out of the way.

Full many insolvents, not bats, to hide so,
Nor bushes, nor divers, I happen to know,
But even grand seigniors, quite free from all cares,
By virtue of brass, and of private backstairs.

[14] Aesop.
[15] _With bonnets of green.--Such as insolvent debtors were anciently required to wear, in France, after making cession of their effects, in order to escape imprisonment.--Translator. The custom also prevailed in Italy.

L'Anitra, il Cespuglio e il Pipistrello.

 

Un'Anitra, un Cespuglio e un Pipistrello,
non trovando fortuna nel paese,
fanno una lega ed a comuni spese
vanno in cerca d'un sito un po' più bello.

Con agenti e commessi una gran banca
aprirono e un'azienda, in cui non manca
un registro, una penna, un calamaio.
Ma sul più buon scoppiò subito un guaio.

Tirato in stretti gorghi il capitale
e in un mar pien di scogli, in un momento
precipitò nel baratro infernale,
che dal volgo si chiama fallimento.

Ma il mio terzetto non strillò. Sapienza
è invece d'ogni straccio di mercante,
quando perde, di far sempre sembiante
che guadagna e salvare l'apparenza.

Ma questa volta il tonfo è così grande,
che la voce in un subito si spande:
senza denari, credito e soccorso,
eran ridotti a far ballare l'orso.

Con sbirri, e carte, e citazioni intorno,
con creditori indocili, indiscreti,
un momento non erano quieti
dallo spuntare al tramontar del giorno.

E congiuravan per trovar appigli
di non pagar; ma inutilmente, credi,
il Cespuglio cacciavasi fra i piedi
della gente per chiedere consigli;

tormentato dai birri iva anche lui
il Pipistrel negli angoli più bui,
e l'Anitra tuffavasi nel mare
la mercanzia perduta a ricercare.

Conosco debitori, che non sono
Pipistrelli, non Anitre e Cespugli,
ma nobiloni, i quali han questo dono
d'uscir per la scaletta dei garbugli.