{"id":502,"date":"2017-07-15T13:29:42","date_gmt":"2017-07-15T20:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ftl.dlwa.com\/?p=502"},"modified":"2025-07-01T09:36:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:36:15","slug":"des-passagers-et-du-pilote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ftl.dlwa.com\/?p=502","title":{"rendered":"Des Passagers et du Pilote"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Our manuscripts and Archives received a single leaf from an early French version of \u00c6sop’s fables. In trying to determine the correct bibliographic information for cataloging the current best guess is that the page was printed in the 1660’s and is probably from the book “Nouveau recueil des fables d’Esope : mises en franc?ois avec le Sens moral en quatre vers, & des Figures \u00e0 chaque Fable, dedi\u00e9 a la jeunesse<\/em><\/strong>” 1<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

In spite of the bibliographical questions the content of this page has as meaningful message today as it did 200 or 2000 years ago.<\/p>\n

Des Passagers et du Pilote<\/strong><\/p>\n

Un vaisseau pouss\u00e9 par la temp\u00eate vint \u00e9chouer sur la c\u00f4te, et l\u00e0 s’entrouvrit. Comme il \u00e9tait sur le point d’\u00eatre submerg\u00e9 par les vagues, les Passagers qui s’y \u00e9taient embarqu\u00e9s, jetaient de grands cris et se d\u00e9sesp\u00e9raient.<\/p>\n

Ils auraient pu songer \u00e0 chercher les moyens de se sauver, mais la peur les troublait \u00e0 tel point, qu’ils ne pensaient, les mains lev\u00e9es vers le ciel, qu’\u00e0 implorer le secours des dieux. Cependant le Pilote leur criait, en quittant ses habits :<\/p>\n

” Amis, s’il est bon de montrer ses bras \u00e0 Jupiter, il ne l’est pas moins, dans le p\u00e9ril o\u00f9 nous sommes, de les tendre \u00e0 la mer “.<\/p>\n

Cela dit, il s’y jette, et si bien, qu’\u00e0 force de nager, il gagne la c\u00f4te ; il ne s’y fut pas plut\u00f4t sauv\u00e9, qu’il vit la mer engloutir, avec le vaisseau, ceux qui n’avaient eu d’autre ressource que celle de leurs voeux.<\/p>\n

A very rough translation of this fable goes something like this:<\/p>\n

A vessel pushed by the tempest fell on the coast, and there it opened. As he was on the point of being submerged by the waves, the Passengers who had embarked there shouted loudly and despaired.<\/p>\n

They might have thought of seeking the means of escape, but fear disturbed them to such an extent that they thought, with their hands raised to heaven, only to implore the help of the gods. However, the Pilot shouted to them, removing his clothes:<\/p>\n

“Friends, if it is good to show his arms to Jupiter, it is none the less, in the peril we are in, to stretch them to the sea.”<\/p>\n

Having said that, he threw himself into it, and so well that, by dint of swimming, he reached the coast. He had no sooner saved himself, when he saw the sea swallowing up with the ship those who had no other resource than that of their vows.<\/p>\n

Words to live by today!<\/p>\n

Worldcat: Link<\/a><\/p>\n