Le noir serpent, sorti de sa caverne impure,
A donc vu rompre enfin sous ta main ferme et s?re
le venimeux tissu de ses jours abhorr?s!
Aux entrailles du tigre, ? ses dents homicides,
Tu vins demander et les membres livides
Et le sang des humains qu’il avait d?vor?s!
La vertu seule est libre. Honneur de notre histoire,
Notre immortel opprobre y vit avec ta gloire.
Seule tu fus un homme, et vengea les humains.
Et nous, eunuques vils, troupeau l?che et sans ?me,
Nous savons r?p?ter quelques plaintes de femme,
Mais le fer p?serait ? nos d?biles mains.
. . . . .
Un sc?l?rat de moins rampe dans cette fange.
La Vertu t’applaudit. De sa m?le louange
Entends, bell h?ro?ne, entends l’auguste voix.
O Vertu, le poignard, seul espoir de la terre,
Est ton arme sacr?e, alors que le tonnerre
Laisse r?gner le crime, et te vend ? ses lois.
English
(The black serpent, leaving his filthy cave,
Has finally suffered by your hand so sure and brave
The end of its venomous existence so despised!
From the tiger’s guts, from his homicidal teeth
You came and drew what he’d devoured from beneath:
The blood and livid members of his victims sacrificed.)
(Virtue alone is free. Honor of our history,
Our immortal shame we live beside your glory.
Only you were a man, your knife did vengeance wreak;
And we, vile eunuchs, cowardly and soul-less cattle.
We can at best complain like women prattle,
But to wield a sword our hands would be too weak
. . . . .
In that mud crawls one scoundrel less.
Hear, lovely heroine, hear Virtue bless,
Hear the august voice of its virile praise.
Oh virtue, the dagger that hope will raise,
Is your sacred arm, when Heaven holds its thunder
And lets crime rule, while laws are cut asunder.)
(Andre Marie de Chenier)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, Success Poems, Law & Regulation Poems, Praise Poems, Honor Poems, Vice & Virtue Poems, Crime Poems, History Poems, English PoemsBased on Keywords: homme, arme, avait, gloire, jours, fus, scoundrel, eunuchs, venomous, moins, mains