The Carp and the Little Carps

Fable by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian Period 18th century

Take care, my sons, keep less to the edge,
follow the bottom of the river;
fear the deadly line,
or the hawk, more dangerous still.
Thus spoke a carp of the Seine
to young fish who scarcely listened.
It was in the month of April; the snows, the icicles,
melted by the zephyrs, came down from the mountains;
the river swollen by them rises in great billows,
and overflows into the countryside.
Ah! Ah! cried the little carps,
what do you say to that, you doting carp?
Do you fear the hooks for us?
We are now citizens of the stormy sea;
look: one sees only the waters and the sky,
the trees are hidden beneath the wave,
we are the masters of the world,
it is the universal deluge.
Do not believe that, replies the old mother;
for the water to recede only a moment is needed.
Do not go far, and, for fear of accident,
follow, always follow the bottom of the river.
Bah! say the fish, you always repeat
the same speeches.
Farewell, we are going to see our new domain.
Speaking thus, our scatterbrained ones
all leave the bed of the Seine,
and go into the waters that cover the country.
What happened? The waters receded,
and the little carps remained;
soon they were caught,
and fried.
Why did they leave the river?
Why? I know it only too well, alas!
It is that one always thinks oneself wiser than one’s mother,
it is that one wants to leave one’s sphere,
it is that… it is that… I would never finish.

Florian

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-carp-and-the-little-carps-jean-pierre-claris-de-florian/