.

In Her Fair Foundry, Nature Forges Art

by Claude Gaspar Bachet de Meziriac (1581-1638)
translated from French by Josh Mitteldorf

In her fair foundry, Nature forges art,
Divinity of beauty knows no peer.
The orbs of stars and planets we hold dear
Have burned their disks upon our eyes and heart.

The crest of crescent moon adorns her hairs;
She harvests rays of flaming earth to print
Upon her flowing braids their golden tint,
And shamelessly these pilfered treasures wears.

She borrows zephyr’s fragrance from the breeze,
From sea, its pearls, from earth, its ebonies,
Spring roses and the lilies of the fall—

Why then be we surprised by her largesse?
She stole our very hearts, so might we guess:
By larceny has Nature fashioned all.

.

French Original

Quand nature forma d’un art industrieus
Cette beauté divine à nulle autre seconde,
Elle prit dans des feux qui font tousjours la ronde
Par le cercle estoilé, pour en faire ses yeux.

Elle mit le croissant sur son front gracieus,
Elle emprunta les rais du grand flambeau du monde,
Afin d’en colorer sa belle tresse blonde:
Bref, elle butina tout le tresor des Cieux.

Elle prit au zéfirs leur odorante haleine,
Les perles à la mer, à la terre l’ebene,
Les roses et les lis, et la belle en orna.

Se faut-il estonner si cest larronnesse
Vole ainsi tant de coeurs, et desrobe sans cesse?
Nature de larçins toute la façonna.

.

.

Josh Mitteldorf was educated to be an astrophysicist, but his life was derailed by the anti-war movement and New Age revolution of the 1970s. His two daughters were among the first adoptees from China in the 1980s. His book, Cracking the Aging Code was co-authored by Carl Sagan’s son, Dorion. He writes about science and politics at UnauthorizedScience.org. His own poetry and music, together with curated uplifting works of others, appear at Daily-Inspiration.org. His volume of brilliantly illustrated sonnets on the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching is available as an app for augury at I-Ching.guru.

NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets.

The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.

 

***Read Our Comments Policy Here***

 

3 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Josh, I believe you made an excellent translation of Claude’s poem replete with beautiful words, but then I leave that judging to those who know French. I have returned to read it several times and thought about not commenting. My reticence is both philosophically and religiously based. Although Claude was well trained by Jesuits and a superior mathematician, I puzzled over the concept of nature’s “larceny.” He reputedly was a humanist, which I find antithetical to most in the Jesuit order. While trained by Jesuits for most of his young life, I understand from a short bio I read that he spent only one year in the order before leaving. They may not have approved of or appreciated his humanistic views. I presume that accounts in part for his departure. From my perspective, the items mentioned in the poem are or were a part of Nature, thus they could not be stolen.

    Reply
  2. Adam Sedia

    This is a good translation that takes just enough liberties with the original to make it sound poetic in English, while doing a marvelous job of preserving the spirit of the original form and rhyme.

    The poem is quite beautiful. I had never heard of this poet before.

    Reply
  3. Paul A. Freeman

    Very enjoyable, Josh. I was particularly enamoured by the line: ‘She borrows zephyr’s fragrance from the breeze’.

    Thanks for the read.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.