Daniel Defoe - The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: Bilingual Edition (English – French)

Daniel Defoe

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Ptrus Borel

CHAPTER ISTART IN LIFE

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I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now callednay we call ourselves and write our nameCrusoe; and so my companions always called me.

En 1632, je naquis York, d'une bonne famille, mais qui n'tait point de ce pays. Mon pre, originaire de Brme, tabli premirement Hull, aprs avoir acquis de l'aisance et s'tre retir du commerce, tait venu rsider York, o il s'tait alli, par ma mre, la famille Robinson, une des meilleures de la province. C'est cette alliance que je devais mon double nom de Robinson-Kreutznaer; mais, aujourd'hui, par une corruption de mots assez commune en Angleterre, on nous nomme, nous nous nommons et signons CRUSOE. C'est ainsi que mes compagnons m'ont toujours appel.

I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew, any more than my father or mother knew what became of me.

J'avais deux frres: l'an, lieutenant-colonel en Flandre, d'un rgiment d'infanterie anglaise, autrefois command par le fameux colonel Lockhart, fut tu la bataille de Dunkerque contre les Espagnols; que devint l'autre? j'ignore quelle fut sa destine; mon pre et ma mre ne connurent pas mieux la mienne.

Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education and a country free school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall me.

Troisime fils de la famille, et n'ayant appris aucun mtier, ma tte commena de bonne heure se remplir de penses vagabondes. Mon pre, qui tait un bon vieillard, m'avait donn toute la somme de savoir qu'en gnral on peut acqurir par l'ducation domestique et dans une cole gratuite. Il voulait me faire avocat; mais mon seul dsir tait d'aller sur mer, et cette inclination m'entranait si rsolument contre sa volont et ses ordres, et malgr mme toutes les prires et les sollicitations de ma mre et de mes parents, qu'il semblait qu'il y et une fatalit dans cette propension naturelle vers un avenir de misre.

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving fathers house and my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the happiness of this state by this one thingviz. that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.

Mon pre, homme grave et sage, me donnait de srieux et d'excellents conseils contre ce qu'il prvoyait tre mon dessein. Un matin il m'appela dans sa chambre, o il tait retenu par la goutte, et me rprimanda chaleureusement ce sujet.-- Quelle autre raison as-tu, me dit-il, qu'un penchant aventureux, pour abandonner la maison paternelle et ta patrie, o tu pourrais tre pouss, et o tu as l'assurance de faire ta fortune avec de l'application et de l'industrie, et l'assurance d'une vie d'aisance et de plaisir? Il n'y a que les hommes dans l'adversit ou les ambitieux qui s'en vont chercher aventure dans les pays trangers, pour s'lever par entreprise et se rendre fameux par des actes en dehors de la voie commune. Ces choses sont de beaucoup trop au-dessus ou trop au-dessous de toi; ton tat est le mdiocre, ou ce qui peut tre appel la premire condition du bas tage; une longue exprience me l'a fait reconnatre comme le meilleur dans le monde et le plus convenable au bonheur. Il n'est en proie ni aux misres, ni aux peines, ni aux travaux, ni aux souffrances des artisans: il n'est point troubl par l'orgueil, le luxe, l'ambition et l'envie des hautes classes. Tu peux juger du bonheur de cet tat; c'est celui de la vie que les autres hommes jalousent; les rois, souvent, ont gmi des cruelles consquences d'tre ns pour les grandeurs, et ont souhait d'tre placs entre les deux extrmes, entre les grands et les petits; enfin le sage l'a proclam le juste point de la vraie flicit en implorant le Ciel de le prserver de la pauvret et de la richesse.

He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distemper upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtue and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace and the body of rest, nor enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret burning lust of ambition for great things; but, in easy circumstances, sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter; feeling that they are happy, and learning by every days experience to know it more sensibly. After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man, nor to precipitate myself into miseries which nature, and the station of life I was born in, seemed to have provided against; that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it; and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning me against measures which he knew would be to my hurt; in a word, that as he would do very kind things for me if I would stay and settle at home as he directed, so he would not have so much hand in my misfortunes as to give me any encouragement to go away; and to close all, he told me I had my elder brother for an example, to whom he had used the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into the Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires prompting him to run into the army, where he was killed; and though he said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that if I did take this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I should have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when there might be none to assist in my recovery.