Classic Poem

Le nouveau Diogene

Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content, to laugh and drink my task,
Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content I trundle round my cask.

It was from water thou didst draw thy rudeness, so they say;
I never drink it, and indeed, a censor far more gay,
In less than one month, for a place that might my wisdom hold,
Quite dry I fairly drained a cask of generous wine and old.

Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content, to laugh and drink my task,
Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content I trundle round my cask.

Where'er I be, right easily my lodging I arrange;
But since, like us, the gods themselves are apt to love a change,
Snug in my cask upon this globe that turns for ever round,
As Time and Fortune turn, I turn, with them to hold my ground.

Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content, to laugh and drink my task,
Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content I trundle round my cask.

Parties, of whom a hundred times I've ventured to make sport,
Believing that they cannot find in me a firm support,
Take not the trouble now to stop before my cask and say,
" You, who to nothing hold, for whom hold you yourself, we pray? "

Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content, to laugh and drink my task,
Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content I trundle round my cask.

All Gothic prejudice it is my pleasure to abuse;
My pleasure, too, it is to rail at ribbons of all hues.
But no political excess my Liberty will own;
Her brow is decked, in place of cap, with wreaths of flowers alone.

Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content, to laugh and drink my task,
Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content I trundle round my cask.

When they in Congress meet, the world amongst themselves to share,
Let potentates deceivers be, or be deceived there;
I do not to myself propose to ask them, one by one,
If they have thought to regulate the business of my tun.

Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content, to laugh and drink my task,
Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content I trundle round my cask.

Not ignorant how satire may conduct to certain ends,
I fly the ceremonious pomp that on a court attends;
Of empty honors too much prone to say abusive things,
I always tremble for my sun, in presence of your kings.

Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content, to laugh and drink my task,
Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content I trundle round my cask.

In modern Athens to pretend, with lantern in one's hand,
To search for men, were a design most beautifully planned;
But if the evening chance to see my lantern brightly glow,
It is because on Love's behalf it serves as a flambeau.

Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content, to laugh and drink my task,
Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content I trundle round my cask.

No taxes called upon to pay, deserter from the ranks,
Still as a citizen I feel that I deserve some thanks;
For if at vintage-time more casks be wanting for the wine,
For such a purpose I will lend, without a murmur, mine.

Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content, to laugh and drink my task,
Cloaked, O Diogenes!
In garb like thine, at ease,
Free and content I trundle round my cask.