Shoemaker
Shoemaker - meaning Summary
Know Your Proper Bounds
Pushkin retells a fable about a shoemaker who, spotting a flaw in a painted shoe, presumes to critique the painter’9s entire work until the artist rebukes him to "judge the things not higher than a boot." The speaker then likens this to a friend who habitually overreaches in judgment. The poem warns against presumptuous criticism and urges people to stick to their own expertise and limits of knowledge.
Read Complete AnalysesOnce a shoemaker, on the art’s creation, In drown shoes had found a mistake; With his fast brush, an artist made correction; But the shoemaker went without a break: “I think the face a little crooked is shown… The breast’s much bared, as I’ve understood...” Here Apelles stopped him (his patience gone): “Friend, judge the things not higher than a boot!” Mid friends of mine, I too see one, the clever; I do not know in which a subject ever He’d be an ace, tho’ his words of strong roots, But just a fiend brings him to judge men’ level: Let him make judgment only for their boots! Translated by Yevgeny Bonver
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