Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) · le Bestiaire, ou Cortège d'Orphée (1911, gravures Raoul Dufy)

Le Lièvre

Ne soit pas lascif et peureux
Comme le lièvre et l’amoureux.
Mais que toujours ton cerveau soit
La hase pleine qui conçoit.

De haas

Wees niet wellustig en schuw
Als een haas of iemand die verliefd is.
Maar laat je brein altijd zijn
Een drachtige hazin, die bevrucht wordt.

Hare

Don’t be lascivious and fearful
Like the hare and the amorous.
But let your brain always be
A pregnant hare that conceives.

In French there are two words for hare:
le lièvre
la hase (can also refer to a particular species)
and:
une peureuse = angsthaas
Next to the fecundity, the lasciviousness of the hare is proverbial.

see also Apollinaire's note below:

Superfetation (super-fetus) = another conception occurs during an already ongoing pregnancy. Superfetation (or should we say: superfetation-like pregnancies) are reported for numerous species including mammals (even humans!). About the brown hare (Lepus europaeus) superfetation has long been assumed (myth, legend) to exist but evidence is still controversial.
See Roellig K, Menzies BR, Hildebrandt TB, Goeritz F, The concept of superfetation: a critical review on a 'myth' in mammalian reproduction. (Biological Reviews 86(1):77-95, Cambridge Philosophical Society).

note:
Note d'Apollinaire (facsimile)

noot:

Een haas kan opnieuw bevrucht worden terwij ze drachtig is.
In the family of the hare superfetation is possible.