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Nicholas Boileau-Despreaux

Table of contents

1 Nicholas Boileau-Despreaux
2 L'Art Poetique (The Art of Poetry, 1674)
3 Satires (1716)
4 Attributed

Let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.
- Epitres (1701) I, 61
Le chagrin monte en croupe et galope avec lui.
- Trouble rides behind and gallops with him.
- Epitres (1701) V, 44
Le temps fuit, et nous traine avec soi:
Le moment ou je parle est deja loin de moi.
- Time flies and draws us with it. The moment in which I am speaking is already far from me.
- Epitres (1701) III, 47
Tant de fiel entre-t-il dans l'ame des devots?
- Can such bitterness enter into the heart of the devout?
- Le Lutrin (1683) I, 12
Pour soutenir tes droits, que le ciel autorise,
Abime tout plutot; c'est l'esprit de l'Eglise.
- To support those of your rights authorized by Heaven, destroy everything rather than yield; that is the spirit of the Church.
- Le Lutrin (1683) I, 185

L'Art Poetique (The Art of Poetry, 1674)

Tout ce qu'on dit de trop est fade et rebutant. (I, 61)
- That which is repeated too often becomes insipid and tedious.
Souvent la peur d'un mal nous conduit dans un pire. (I, 64)
- Often the fear of one evil leads us into a worse.
Heureux qui, dans ses vers, sait d'une voix legere
Passer du grave au doux, du plaisant au severe. (I, 75)
- Happy the poet who with ease can steer
  From grave to gay, from lively to severe.
Ce que l'on concoit bien s'enonce clairement,
Et les mots pour le dire arrivent aisement. (I, 153)
- Whatever we conceive well we express clearly, and words flow with ease.
Hatez-vous lentement; et, sans perdre courage,
Vingt fois sur le metier remettez votre ouvrage. (I, 171)
- Hasten slowly, and without losing heart, put your work twenty times upon the anvil.
La verite n'a point cet air impetueux. (I, 198)
- Truth has not such an urgent air.
Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire. (I, 232)
- A fool always finds one still more foolish to admire him.
- Variant translation: A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.
Le vrai peut quelquefois n'etre pas vraisemblable. (III, 48)
- At times truth may not seem probable.
Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways. (III, 374)
Un fat quelquefois ouvre un avis important. (IV, 50)
- A fop sometimes gives important advice.

I can call nothing by name if that is not his name. I call a cat a cat, and Rollet a rogue.

Il plait a tout le monde et ne saurait se plaire. (II)
He pleases every one but can not please himself. (declared of Molière)
La vertu d'un coeur noble est la marque certaine. (V, 42)
- Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.
L'or meme a la laideur donne un teint de beaute:
Mais tout devient affreux avec la pauvrete. (VIII, 209)
- Gold gives an appearance of beauty even to ugliness: but with poverty everything becomes frightful.
L'honneur est comme une ile escarpee et sans bords;
On n'y peut plus rentrer des qu'on en est dehors. (X, 167)
- Honor is like an island, rugged and without shores; we can never re-enter it once we are on the outside.
Of all the creatures that creep, swim or fly,
Peopling the earth, waters and the sky,
From Rome to Iceland, Paris to Japan,
I really think, the greatest fool is man.

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