Le Cierge.

 

C'est du séjour des Dieux que les Abeilles viennent.
Les premières, dit-on, s'en allèrent loger
Au mont Hymette*, et se gorger
Des trésors qu'en ce lieu les zéphirs entretiennent.
Quand on eut des palais de ces filles du Ciel
Enlevé l'ambroisie en leurs chambres enclose,
Ou, pour dire en Français la chose,
Après que les ruches sans miel
N'eurent plus que la Cire, on fit mainte bougie ;
Maint Cierge aussi fut façonné.
Un d'eux voyant la terre en brique au feu durcie
Vaincre l'effort des ans, il eut la même envie ;
Et, nouvel Empédocle* aux flammes condamné,
Par sa propre et pure folie,
Il se lança dedans. Ce fut mal raisonné ;
Ce Cierge ne savait grain de Philosophie.
Tout en tout est divers : ôtez-vous de l'esprit
Qu'aucun être ait été composé sur le vôtre.
L'Empédocle de Cire au brasier se fondit :
Il n'était pas plus fou que l'autre.

 

 

The wax-candle. (14)

 

From bowers of gods the bees came down to man.
On Mount Hymettus,[15] first, they say,
They made their home, and stored away
The treasures which the zephyrs fan.
When men had robb'd these daughters of the sky,
And left their palaces of nectar dry,--
Or, as in French the thing's explain'd
When hives were of their honey drain'd--
The spoilers 'gan the wax to handle,
And fashion'd from it many a candle.
Of these, one, seeing clay, made brick by fire,
Remain uninjured by the teeth of time,
Was kindled into great desire
For immortality sublime.
And so this new Empedocles[16]
Upon the blazing pile one sees,
Self-doom'd by purest folly
To fate so melancholy.
The candle lack'd philosophy:
All things are made diverse to be.
To wander from our destined tracks--
There cannot be a vainer wish;
But this Empedocles of wax,
That melted in the chafing-dish,
Was truly not a greater fool
Than he of whom we read at school.

[14] Abstemius.
[15] Mount Hymettus. This was the mountain whence the Greeks got fine honey.
[16] Empedocles. A Pythagorean philosopher who asserted that he had been, before becoming a man, a girl, a boy, a shrub, a bird, and a fish. He is further credited with the vanity of wishing to be thought a god, and hence of throwing himself into Mount Etna to conceal his death. Unfortunately for the success of this scheme, says one story, he convicted himself of suicide by inadvertently leaving his slippers at the foot of the volcano.

La Candela.

 

Dall'Olimpo, soggiorno almo e giocondo,
venner le pecchie ad abitar nel mondo,
e prima ritrovâr dolce ricetto
sui gioghi dell'Imetto,
ove stillâr quanti nel sen dei fiori
van spargendo gli zefiri tesori.

L'uomo imparò dalle costrutte celle
a spremere l'ambrosia, onde le belle
figlie del ciel riempiono i soavi
elaborati favi.
E poi che da mangiar più nulla c'era,
fece candele colla bianca cera.

Una di queste intese dire un giorno
che diventa il matton cotto nel forno
così duro e tenace,
che può vincer del tempo il dente edace,
e come il pazzo Empédocle provò,
nella fornace anch'essa si gettò.

Questa candela nella sua follia
mostrò di non saper filosofia.
Ciascun ha un modo suo di stare al mondo,
l'uno galleggia e l'altro cade in fondo.
Empédocle di cera e non men stolta,
fu dalla brace subito disciolta.