Gulliver's Travels — Chapter 34 in French
By Jonathan Swift
Le lecteur sera peut-être surpris de la liberté avec laquelle j'ai peint ma propre espèce parmi une race de créatures qui sont déjà trop portées à concevoir l'opinion la plus vile de l'humanité, par la conformité entière qui se trouve entre moi et leurs yahoos. THE reader may be disposed to wonder, how I could prevail on myself to give so free a representation of my own species, among a race of mortals, who are already too apt to conceive the vilest opinion of human kind, from that intire congruity between me and their yahoos. D’ailleurs mon maître avait l’esprit très-pénétrant, et remarquait tous les jours dans ma personne des défauts énormes dont je ne m’étais jamais aperçu, et que je regardais tout au plus comme de fort légères imperfections. But I must freely confess, that the many virtues of those excellent quadrupeds, placed in opposite view to human corruptions, had so far opened my eyes, and enlarged my understanding, that I began to view the actions and passions of man, in a very different light; and to think the honour of my own kind, not worth managing; which, besides, it was impossible for me to do, before a person of so acute a judgment as my master, who daily convinced me of a thousand faults in myself, whereof I had not the least perception before, and which, with us, would never be numbered even among human infirmities. Ses censures judicieuses m’inspirèrent un esprit critique et misanthrope ; et l’amour qu’il avait pour la vérité me fit détester le mensonge, et fuir le déguisement dans mes récits. I had likewise learned, from his example, an utter detestation of all falsehood or disguise; and truth appeared so amiable to me, that I determined upon sacrificing every thing to it.
Mais j’avouerai encore ingénument un autre principe de ma sincérité. Let me deal so candidly with the reader, as to confess, that there was yet a much stronger motive for the freedom I took, in my representation of things. Lorsque j’eus passé une année parmi les Houyhnhnms, je conçus pour eux tant d’amitié, de respect, d’estime et de vénération, que je résolus alors de ne jamais songer à retourner dans mon pays, mais de finir mes jours dans cette heureuse contrée, où le ciel m’avait conduit pour m’apprendre à cultiver la vertu. I had not yet been a year in this country, before I contracted such a love and veneration for the inhabitants, that I entered on a firm resolution, never to return to humankind, but to pass the rest of my life among these admirable Houyhnhnms, in the contemplarion and practice of every virtue; where I could have no example or incitement to vice. Heureux si ma résolution eût été efficace ! Mais la fortune, qui m’a toujours persécuté, n’a pas permis que je pusse jouir de ce bonheur. But it was decreed by fortune, my perpetual enemy, that so great a felicity should not fall to my share. Quoi qu’il en soit, à présent que je suis en Angleterre, je me sais bon gré de n’avoir pas tout dit, et d’avoir caché aux Houyhnhnms les trois quarts de nos extravagances et de nos vices : je palliais même de temps en temps, autant qu’il m’était possible, les défauts de mes compatriotes. Lors même que je les révélais, j’usais de restrictions mentales, et tâchais de dire le faux sans mentir. However, it is now some comfort to reflect, that in what I said of my countrymen, I extenuated their faults, as much as I durst before so strict an examiner; and upon every article gave as favourable a turn, as the matter would bear. N’étais-je pas en cela tout-à-fait excusable ? Qui est-ce qui n’est pas un peu partial quand il s’agit de sa chère patrie ? For indeed, who is there alive, that will not he swayed by his bias and partiality to the place of his birth?
J’ai rapporté jusqu’ici la substance de mes entretiens avec mon maître durant le temps que j’eus l’honneur d’être à son service ; mais, pour éviter d’être long, j’ai passé sous silence plusieurs autres articles. I have related the substance of several conversations I had with my master, during the greatest part of the time I had the honour to be in his service; but have indeed, for brevity sake, omitted much more than is here set down.
Un jour, il m’envoya chercher de grand matin, et, m’ordonnant de m’asseoir à quelque distance de lui (honneur qu’il ne m’avait point encore fait), il me parla ainsi : J’ai repassé dans mon esprit tout ce que vous m’avez dit, soit à votre sujet, soit au sujet de votre pays. When I had answered all his questions, and his curiosity seemed to be fully satisfied, he sent for me one morning early, and commanded me to sit down at some distance (an honour which he had never before conferred upon me); he said, he had been very seriously considering my whole story, as far as it related both to myself and my country: that he looked upon us as a sort of animals, to whose share, by what accident he could not conjecture, some small pittance of reason had fallen, whereof we made no other use, than by its assistance to aggravate our natural corruptions, and to acquire new ones, which nature had not given us: that we disarmed ourselves of the few abilities she had bestowed; had been very successful in multiplying our original wants, and seemed to spend our whole lives in vain endeavours, to supply them by our own inventions. Que quant à moi, il était manifeste que je n'avais ni la force ni l'agilité d'un yahoo ordinaire ; que je marchais avec peine sur mes pieds de derrière ; que j'avais trouvé le moyen de rendre mes ongles inutiles pour la défense, et d'ôter le poil de mon menton, qui était destiné à me protéger du soleil et de l'intempérie. That as to myself, it was manifest I had neither the strength nor agility of a common yahoo; that I walked infirmly on my hinder feet; had found out a contrivance to make my claws of no use or defence, and to remove the hair from my chin, which was intended as a shelter from the sun and the weather. Enfin, que je ne pouvais courir avec vitesse, ni grimper aux arbres comme mes frères, (ainsi qu'il les appelait) les yahoos de son pays. Lastly, That I could neither run with speed, nor climb trees like my brethren, (as he called them) the yahoos in his country.