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God does all things well. Without seeking the proof
In all this Universe, and going through it,
In Pumpkins I find it.
A villager considering,
How big this fruit is and how slender its stalk:
What was he thinking, said he, the Author of all that?
He has placed that Pumpkin very badly!
By Jove! I would have hung it
On one of those oaks there.
It would have been just the thing;
Such fruit, such tree, to do well.
It’s a pity, Garo, that you did not enter
The council of the one your Curate preaches:
Everything would have been better; for why, for instance,
Does the Acorn, which is not as big as my little finger,
Not hang in that spot?
God made a mistake: the more I contemplate
These fruits thus placed, the more it seems to Garo
That a mix-up has been made.
This reflection troubling our man:
One does not sleep, said he, when one has so much wit.
Under an oak he goes at once to take his nap.
An acorn falls: the sleeper’s nose suffers for it.
He wakes; and carrying his hand to his face,
He finds the Acorn still caught in the hair of his chin.
His bruised nose forces him to change his language;
Oh, oh, said he, I’m bleeding! and what would it be then
If a heavier mass had fallen from the tree,
And that Acorn had been a gourd?
God did not will it: doubtless he was right;
I see the cause clearly now.
Praising God for everything,
Garo returns home.
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-acorn-and-the-pumpkin-jean-de-la-fontaine/