Often, as a lark, the crewmen will take hold
Of albatrosses, those vast birds of the sea
Which follow, lazy voyage-mates above
The ship sliding over the sour abyss.Hardly after they're released on the deck
These kings of the sky become clumsy and shy
Pitifully letting their great white wings
Drag like oars beside them on the boards.
This wingèd traveller, how awkward, how weak!
He who was once so fine, now so comic and plain!
One man tortures his beak with a sailor's pipe
Another mimes with a limp the cripple who flew!
The poet is like this prince of the clouds
Who scares away the storm and mocks the archer's aim;
Exiled on the ground amid cruel taunts
Hindered by giant's wings, he cannot walk.
