A La Royne Catherine de Medicis
by Pierre de Ronsard. . . L’autre jour que j’etois au temple à Sainct Denis,
Regardant tant de Rois en leurs cachottes mis,
Que n’agueres faisaient trembler toute la France,
Qui tous enflex d’orgueil, de pompe et d’esperance
Menoient un camp armé, tuoient et commandoient,
Et de leur peuple avoient les biens qu’ils demandoient,
Et les voyant couchez, n’ayans plus que l’escorce,
Comme buches de bois sans puissance ny force,
Je disois à par moy: Ce n’est rien que des Rois:
D’un nombre que voicy, à peine ou deux ou trois
Vivent apres leur mort, pour n’avoir este chiches
Vers les bons escrivains et les avoir fait riches. . .
To Queen Catherine de Medici
by Pierre de Ronsard. . . The other day, when I’d stepped inside
the church of Saint Denis and saw them, side by side
in their shallow niches, so many great
rulers lying in state
in stone, each inside a jail of death,
though everyone in France took a startled breath,
sometime, at the sight of his flying
colors—each leading out his armed camp, trying
for glory, and always receiving more
goods and help from his people than he’d asked for—
seeing them lying there, my lady,
on their backs, finally
unescorted, unhorsed,
with no more authority or force
than pale, stripped branches,
just rows and rows of impotence,
I said to myself, “There’s nothing
in here but Kings,
and quite a few of them. No more than three
or two live on in anyone’s memory,
and only because it did not occur
—not to these monarchs—not to be meager
toward their writers, but rather make much
of them—even make them rich.”
translated from French by Diane Furtney