Les Regrets/6

V. 'It’s not the Tuscan river with its proud shore '

Les Regrets ~ VI written by Joachim Du Bellay translated by A. S. Kline

VII. 'Happy, the man who finds sweet journey’s end'

Les Regrets - VI. ‘Après avoir longtemps erré sur le rivage’.

Link to further information

VI

"After long wandering on the darkened plain"
 
After long wandering on the darkened plain,
Where hosts of wretched shadows grieve below,
You’ve reached that place, to which we all must go,
Fleeing from servile poverty’s dull pain.
 
We, along those same banks, stray in vain,
Arms outstretched towards the steersman so,
Who drives us back; we lacking, to our woe,
The fee, a verse, to summon him again.
 
So you enjoy sweet ease, without a care,
And as the learned in sweet love do there,
Lost with your lover on that leafy shore,
 
You drink forgetfulness, to past toil blind,
No longer dreaming of those left behind,
Wailing to cross, or labouring at the oar.