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On the edge of a well full deep,
Stretched at full length, lay fast asleep
A child then still in his school days.
For schoolboys bed and mattress are always.
An honest man in such a case
Would have made a leap of twenty fathoms.
Nearby, most fortunately,
Fortune passed, woke him gently,
Saying: My pretty one, I save your life.
Be wiser another time, I pray.
Had you fallen, it would have been blamed on me;
Yet it was your own fault.
I ask you, in good faith,
If this imprudence so towering
Comes from my whim. She left at these words.
As for me, I approve her words.
Nothing happens in the world
But that she must answer for it.
We make her an Echo of all things.
She is held to guarantee every adventure.
Is one foolish, giddy, takes bad measures;
One thinks to be quits by blaming one’s fate:
In short, Fortune is always wrong.
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-fortune-and-the-young-child-jean-de-la-fontaine/