| Belles journées, souris du temps, | O mice of time, brief day by day,
| Vous rongez peu à peu ma vie. | You slyly gnaw my life away;
| Dieu! Je vais avoir vingt-huit ans, | And all too soon I'll have misspent
| Et mal vécus, à mon envie. | Twenty-eight years, I'm sad to say.
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| LA CHENILLE | CATERPILLAR
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| Le travail mène à la richesse. | Work hard, poets, work with good cheer:
| Pauvres poètes, travaillons! | Work leads to wealth and freedom from fear;
| La chenille en peinant sans cesse | And butterflies, for all their graces,
| Devient le riche papillon. | Are merely caterpillars who persevere.
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| LA SAUTERELLE | CRICKET
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| Voici la fine sauterelle, | This is the slender cricket
| La nourriture de saint Jean. | Saint John once used to eat.
| Puissent mes vers être comme elle, | May my verses be like it -
| Le régal des meilleurs gens. | And feed the true elite!
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...buy this book