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A man madly cherished his Cat;
He found her cute, and beautiful, and delicate,
Who meowed in a very sweet tone.
He was crazier than the crazies.
This Man then, by prayers, by tears,
By spells and by charms,
Does so much that he obtains from destiny
That his Cat one fine morning
Becomes a woman, and that same morning,
Silly master makes her his other half.
There he is mad with extreme love,
From being mad with friendship.
Never did the most beautiful Lady
So charm her Favorite
As did this new wife
Her hypochondriac husband.
He coaxes her, she flatters him;
He no longer finds anything of the Cat in her,
And pushing the error to the end,
Believes her a woman in all and everywhere,
When some Mice gnawing at the mat
Disturbed the pleasure of the newlyweds.
At once the woman is on her feet:
She missed her adventure.
Mice to return, woman to be in position.
This time she ran up just in time:
For having changed her appearance,
The mice did not fear her.
It was always a lure for her,
So much force does nature have.
It mocks everything, once a certain age is reached:
The vase is soaked, the cloth has taken its fold.
In vain from his ordinary ways
One wants to break him.
Whatever one can do,
One cannot reform him.
Blows of pitchfork or of stirrup straps
Do not make him change his manners;
And, even if you were armed with clubs,
You will never be their masters.
If they close the door in his face,
He will come back through the windows.
Jean de La Fontaine
Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.
Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/fable-the-cat-transformed-into-a-woman-jean-de-la-fontaine/