Library of the World's Best Literature/The Pot of Flowers

Sometimes a child finds a small seed. And at once, delighted with its bright colors, To plant it he takes a porcelain jar Adorned with blue dragons and strange flowers.

He goes away. The root, snake-like, stretches, Breaks through the earth, blooms, becomes a shrub; Each day, farther down, it sinks its fibrous foot, Until it bursts the sides of the vessel.

The child returns: surprised, he sees the rich plant Over the vase’s debris brandishing its green spikes; He wants to pull it out, but the stem is stubborn. The child persists, and tears his fingers with the pointed arrows.

Thus grew love in my simple heart; I believed I sowed but a spring flower; ’Tis a large aloe, whose root breaks The porcelain vase with the brilliant figures.

Le Pot de fleurs