pfronco1

COMME UN CHEVREUIL ...	JUST AS A ROEBUCK ...
Pierre de Ronsard	tr. Peter Dean
Comme un chevreuil, quand le printemps détruit Du froid hiver la poignante gelée, Pour mieux brouter la feuille emmiellée, Hors de son bois avec l’aube s’enfuit; Et seul, et sur, loin de chiens et de bruit, Or’ sur un mont, or’ dans la vallée, Or’ pres d’une onde a l’écart recélée, Libre, folatre ou son pied le conduit; De rets ne d’arc sa liberté n’a crainte, Sinon alors que sa vie est atteinte D’un trait meurtrier empourpré de son sang; Ainsi j’allais, sans espoir de dommage, Le jour qu’un oeil, sur l’avril de mon age, Tira d’un coup mille traits en mon flanc.	Just as a roebuck, when spring undermines The icy, iron grip of winter’s fist, The better fresh honeyed foliage to taste, Leaps from his copse at daybreak’s earliest signs, And single, safe, with dogs and noise denied, Up on a hill or down in valley low Or perhaps beside some quiet stream may go Frisky and free, his foot his only guide; His liberty under no threat or stay Unless it be his life be taken away By one murderous arrow crimsoned with his blood; Thus with no shred of hope, thus, thus, went I, That day, the springtime of my youth, an eye Shot me with thousands, in one glance a flood.