“Notre interet est toujours la boussole
Que suivent nos opinions.”
“Self-interest is the compass by which men
Do set the course of their opinions.”
“Notre vie est du vent tissu.”
“Our life is woven wind.”
“Noun fau juja tout per la mino.”
“Judge not all things by what they seem.”
“Nous aurions souvent honte de nos plus belles actions, si le monde
voyait les motifs qui les produisent.”
“We should often be ashamed of our noblest actions, if the world could
see the motives which underlie them.”
“(Cela etait autrefois ainsi, mais) nous avons change tout cela.”
“It was so formerly, but we have changed all that.”
“Nous avons de si riches plaines,
Et de si fertiles côteaux,
Disait un Gascon de Bordeaux,
Que si l’on y plantait des gaines,
Il y pousserait des couteaux.”
“So fertile are om* hills, so rich the plains below,
Said a Gascon of Bordeaux,
That if we planted sheaths, then straightway knives would grow.”
“Nous avons le pied à la fosse.”
“We have one foot in the grave.”
“Un pied dans le sépulcre et tout pres d’y descendre.”
Patrix. Un Mourant.
“With one foot in the grave, and soon therein to fall.”
Nous avons tant et trestant par la marine jeune que les araignes ont
faict leurs toiles sus nos dents.”
“We have fasted so often and so long on the voyage that the spiders have
spun their webs over our teeth.”
“Nous avons tous assez de force pour supporter les maux d’autrui.”
“We have all strength enough to bear the ills of others.”
