Français
Español
Italiano
Deutsch
Português
From a young Rabbit’s palace home
Dame Weasel one fine morning took possession; she’s a sly one.
The Master being absent, it was an easy thing for her.
She carried her household gods into his dwelling one day
When he had gone to pay his court to Dawn,
Among the thyme and the dew.
After he had grazed, trotted, done all his rounds,
Johnny Rabbit returns to his underground abode.
The Weasel had put her nose to the window.
O hospitable gods, what do I see appearing here?
Said the animal driven from his paternal home:
Hey there, Madam Weasel,
Let it be cleared out without a trumpet blast,
Or I will warn all the rats of the country.
The Lady with the pointed nose replied that the land
Belonged to the first occupant.
It was a fine subject for war,
A dwelling where he himself could enter only by crawling.
And even if it were a Kingdom,
I would like to know, she said, what law
Has forever granted it
To John, son or nephew of Peter or of William,
Rather than to Paul, rather than to me.
John Rabbit pleaded custom and usage.
It is, he said, their laws that have of this dwelling
Made me master and lord, and that from father to son,
Have passed it from Peter to Simon, then to me, John.
Is the first occupant a wiser law?-
Well then, without crying out any further,
Let us refer, she said, to Raminagrobis.
He was a cat living like a devout hermit,
A cat playing the sanctimonious puss,
A holy man of a cat, well furred, fat and plump,
An expert arbiter in all cases.
John Rabbit agrees to him as judge.
The two of them arrived
Before his furry majesty.
Grippeminaud said to them: My children, come near,
Come near, I am deaf, age is the cause of it.
The one and the other drew near, fearing nothing.
As soon as he saw the contestants within reach,
Grippeminaud the good apostle
Throwing his claw to both sides at the same time,
Set the litigants in agreement by crunching one and the other.
This closely resembles the disputes that sometimes have
The little sovereigns who refer themselves to Kings.
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-the-weasel-and-the-little-rabbit-jean-de-la-fontaine/