On vit; on vit infâme. Eh bien? il fallut l'être;
L'infâme aprè tout mange et dort.
Ici même, en ses parcs, où la mort nouse fait paître,
Où la hache nous tire au sort,
Beaux poulets sont écrits; maris, amants sont dupes;
Caquetage, intrigues de sots.
On y chante; on y joue; on y lève des jupes;
On y fait chansons et bons mots;
L'un pousse et fait bondir sur les toits, sur les vitres,
Un ballon tout gonflé de vent,
Comme sont les discours des sept cents plats bélîtres,
Dont Barère est le plus savant.
L'autre court; l'autre saute; et braillent, boivent, rient
Politiques et raisonneurs;
Et sur les gonds de fer soudain les portes crient.
Des juges tigres nos seigneurs
Le pourvoyeur paraît. Quelle sera la proie
Que la hache appelle aujourd'hui?
Chacun frissonne, écoute; et chacun avec joie
Voit que ce n'est pas encor lui . . .
Iambes VIII
We live, we live degraded. What of it? It had to be. Degraded, you still eat and sleep. Even
here, in its pens, where death puts us to graze, where the axe draws lots for us, fine love-letters
are written; husbands, lovers are duped; tittle-tattle, intrigues of fools. There is singing, gambling,
skirts are lifted; songs and jokes are made up; someone sends up and bounces on the roofs, on the
panes, a balloon swollen with wind, like the speeches of the seven hundred dreary imbeciles, of
which the wisest is Barére. (6)
Another runs, another jumps; 'politicians' and discussers bray, drink, laugh; and on their iron
hinges the doors suddenly grate. The purveyor of our masters the tiger-judges appears. Who will
be the prey which the axe calls for today? Each shudders, listens, and each with joy sees that it is
not yet he. . .
Footnotes
- Anthology in Greek means flower gathering.
- Translated: The Oath of the Tennis Court
- The Moniteur was one of the leading French Revolution
newspapers.
- Malesherbes was Louis XVI's Interior Minister.
- Probably a certain Michel de Cubières-Palmézeaux,
who had written a poem in Marat's honor.
- One of the seven hundred members of the Convention
Nationale during the Terror. Writing this fragment in prison while in constant fear of
execution, Chénier ciphered Barèrer's name and disguised his meaning in the
previous line by writing:
Comme sont les discours des heptsad (700) plats
bélit.
Sources
- John C. Bailey: The Claims of French Poetry; Books for Libraries Press, Inc.;
Freeport, New York; 1967; pages 140 - 154.
- Nimet Sala Habachy: Last Illusion; Opera News; April 13, 1996; pages
32 - 33.
- Various, Microsoft Encarta; 1993; Funk and Wagnall's Corporation.
- Brian Woledge: The Penguin Book of French Verse; Penguin Books Ltd.,
England; 1975; pages 310 - 319.
André Chénier Biography: Stephen L. Parker
2 May 1996