[Jennifer Reeser]

Return of the Diplomat

Joaquim Du Bellay

To soft-soap a creditor for an extension,
To chat up a banker and radiate cheer,
Not to speak freely, the way we do here,
To weigh up for ages each subject you mention:

Not to risk sickness through bingeing and drinking,
Not to spend money without machination,
Not to give strangers too much information,
And not to let everyone know what you’re thinking:

To understand attitude, know who wants what,
To appreciate just how much freedom you’ve got
While ensuring that nobody takes it away:

To live among others, while taking their measure:
And that, dear Morel (though it gives me no pleasure),
Is all that Rome taught me in my three-year stay.



From Les Regrets

Flatter un créditeur, pour son terme allonger,
Courtiser un banquier, donner bonne espérance,
Ne suivre en son parler la liberté de France,
Et pour répondre un mot, un quart d'heure y songer :

Ne gâter sa santé par trop boire et manger,
Ne faire sans propos une folle dépense,
Ne dire à tous venants tout cela que l'on pense,
Et d'un maigre discours gouverner l'étranger :

Connaître les humeurs, connaître qui demande,
Et d'autant que l'on a la liberté plus grande,
D'autant plus se garder que l'on ne soit repris :

Vivre avecques chacun, de chacun faire compte :
Voilà, mon cher Morel (dont je rougis de honte),
Tout le bien qu'en trois ans à Rome j'ai appris.


From the sonnet sequence The Regrets

To flatter a creditor to extend his term,
To court a banker, to give good hope,
Not to follow in his speech the freedom of France,
And to answer a word, a quarter of an hour to think about it:

Not to spoil his health through too much to eat and drink,
Not to make without cause a spending spree,
Not to say to all comers all that we think,
And by lean discourse control the stranger

To know mood, to know who is asking
And especially as one has greater freedom,
to be especially careful that one is not taken:

To live with everyone, to take account of everyone:
Voilà! my dear Morel (of which I blush with shame)
All the good that I learned in three years in Rome.