III LE SANGLIER D'ERYMANTHE
Balance - septembre-octobre
L'air
Maîtriser sa force
Séparation

Véloce, la couenne au poignard ivoirin
Ebranle la forêt et l'air qui mû l'escorte,
EQUILIBRE sa course et sa masse, de sorte
Qu'un sanglier de vent double un souffle de crin.

Mais plus prompt le chasseur dont le filet étreint
Et brise son élan. Sous la poigne trop forte
Le brutal sent ployer son cou, l'échine morte
Reconnaît le genou qui lui brise le rein,

Et songe le héros que son triomphe effare
Que si fut la forêt l'écrin et la prison,
Il arrache son hôte à la sylve et prépare

A qui fut force et rage une neuve raison -
Honneur à l'ouvrier qui par seule oraison
Ayant soumis le feu, jauge, pèse, SEPARE.

 Michel Galiana (c) September 2005 

III THE ERYMANTHIAN BOAR
Libra - September-October
Air
Controlling one's own strength
Separation

The swift, tough-hided beast with the ivory tusk
Shatters the wood and drags the air surrounding it
That BALANCES its run and its bulk, transmuted
Into a boar of wind of bristle and of musk.

But fleeter is the one whose hunting net has seized
And stopped its flight. And in the grip it can't withstand
The brute feels its neck yield and its helpless spine bend
Under the knee, until out of him strength is squeezed.

By his own victory appalled, the champion
Sees that the wood was to the freak shrine and prison.
He drags from the forest its guest and he provides

To him who was mere strength and rage a new blazon:
Honour to the worker who, by his orison,
Tames the fire and measures, tips the scales and DIVIDES.

 Transl. Ch.Souchon (c) September 2005 

Le troisième Travail d'Hercule le conduisit dans 
la vallée d'Argolide à la recherche d'un monstrueux 
sanglier qu'il devait ramener vivant. Il débusqua 
enfin le monstre sur le Mont Erymanthe et parvint à 
le diriger vers un banc de neige, où il s'immobilisa. 
Il se jeta sur son échine et le rapporta, sur ses 
épaules à Eurysthée qui fut si effrayé qu'il courut
se cacher dans une cuve d'airain. 

The third Labour took Hercules to the Argolid valley 
in quest of an enormous boar, which he had to bring 
back alive. He finally located the boar on Mount 
Erymanthus and managed to drive it into a snowbank, 
immobilizing it. Flinging it up onto his shoulder, 
he carried it back to Eurystheus, who was so afraid
that he ran and hid in a bronze storage jar.