Les Regrets/21

XX. 'As Aeneas did, I found myself likewise '

Les Regrets ~ XXI écrit par Joachim Du Bellay traduit par A. S. Kline

XXII. 'As well as in our tongue we can convey'

Les Regrets - XXI. ‘Devaulx, la mer reçoit tous les fleuves du monde’.

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XXI

"The sea receives the rivers of the world"
 
The sea receives the rivers of the world,
Without increase, Devaulx, and like the sea
Is peerless Paris, where one drowns in plenty
In all that, there, on every side’s unfurled.
 
Paris in learning is a Greece impearled,
A Rome in grandeur Paris now, we see,
An Asia in riches, and in rare novelty
A second Africa, about us whirled.

In short, Devaulx, on seeing this great city,
My eyes, long-exercised previously,
In not marvelling at stranger things: I stood
 
There dazed. Though what displeased my eye,
Was what entrances the idle passers by,
The crush of carts, the manners, and the mud.

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