I am a guest of the French language. My poems in French are born of my interaction with the French language, which is not the same as that of a French poet.
Not only I lost what I had in the ship, but from the captain and the company generally what was good or worth the taking was carried away; all which was done unknown to the emperor.
I can't tell you how many people would say to me as a teenager, 'Why don't you grow up and start thinking about getting a real job?'