Epilogue.

 

Bornons ici cette carrière.
Les longs ouvrages me font peur.
Loin d’épuiser une matière,
On n’en doit prendre que la fleur.
Il s’en va temps que je reprenne
Un peu de forces et d’haleine,
Pour fournir à d’autres projets.
Amour, ce tyran de ma vie,
Veut que je change de sujets ;
Il faut contenter son envie.
Retournons à Psyché ; Damon, vous m’exhortez
À peindre ses malheurs et ses félicités.
J’y consens ; peut-être ma veine
En sa faveur s’échauffera.
Heureux si ce travail est la dernière peine
Que son époux me causera !

Epilogue.

 

Here check we our career:
Long books I greatly fear.
I would not quite exhaust my stuff;
The flower of subjects is enough.
To me, the time is come, it seems,
To draw my breath for other themes.
Love, tyrant of my life, commands
That other work be on my hands.
I dare not disobey.
Once more shall Psyche be my lay.
I'm call'd by Damon to portray
Her sorrows and her joys.
I yield: perhaps, while she employs,
My muse will catch a richer glow;
And well if this my labour'd strain
Shall be the last and only pain
Her spouse[27] shall cause me here below.

[27] _Her spouse_.--Cupid, the spouse of Psyche. The "other work on my hands" mentioned in this Epilogue (the end of the poet's first collection of Fables) was no doubt the writing of his "Psyche,"
which was addressed to his patron the Duchess de Bouillon, and published in 1659, the year following the publication of the first six Books of the Fables. See also Translator's Preface.

Epilogo.

 

Poniam all'opra un margine. Le cose
troppo lunghe finiscono in serpenti.
Più che la penna consumar sul tema,
è bello il fiore cogliere dell'arte.
Mi si conceda adunque un piccol fiato
sì ch'io possa accudir ad altre imprese,
ove mi chiama Amor, che di mia vita
è gentile tiranno. Altri mi chiama
a cantar la dolcissima di Psiche
e mestissima storia e vi consento,
sperando che nel suo fuoco divino
a novi canti l'animo s'infiammi.
Felice ancor mi chiamerò, se questa
fia l'estrema fatica, a cui soggetto
mi tien di Psiche il prediletto sposo.