AN ABORTIVE LIFE

Translated from Antony Deschamps by Sir Tollemache Sinclair. To me the world was nought, and now existed not. Ne'er towards the real to make e'en one step I've got,

LARMES ET SOUHIRES 401

To me the useless was the necessary thing,

The rest was to the wretched poor some good to bring,

Behold now scarcely at mid age I feel a bar,

From me all pleasure is for ever banished far,

And I, who thought myself made of another clay,

Formed of a subtler essence and sublimer ray,

Like a mere animal I only live to eat,

The brute would not now change with me his happier seat,

For he his offspring has in his own den to feed,

I've but myself to love on earth, none does me heed.