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A very young little Mouse, who had seen nothing,
Was almost caught off guard.
Here is how he told the adventure to his mother:
I had crossed the Mounts that bound this State,
And was trotting like a young Rat
Who seeks to give himself free rein,
When two animals caught my eyes:
One gentle, benign and gracious,
And the other turbulent, and full of restlessness.
He has a piercing and harsh voice,
On his head a piece of flesh,
A sort of arm with which he raises himself in the air
As if to take his flight,
The tail spread out like a plume.
Now it was a Cock of which our little Mouse
Made for his mother the picture,
As of an animal come from America.
He was beating, he said, his flanks with his arms,
Making such noise and such fracas,
That I, who thanks to the Gods, pride myself on courage,
Took flight from fear,
Cursing him with all my heart.
Without him I would have made acquaintance
With this animal that seemed to me so gentle.
He is velvety like us,
Dappled, long tail, a humble bearing;A modest gaze, and yet an eye shining:
I believe him strongly sympathetic
To Messieurs the Rats; for he has ears
In shape like our own.
I was going to approach him, when with a sound full of brilliance
The other made me take flight.
– My son, said the Mouse, this sweet one is a Cat,
Who under his hypocrite little face
Against all your kin
Is carried by a malicious will.
The other animal on the contrary
Far from doing us harm,
Will serve some day perhaps for our meals.
As for the Cat, it is on us that he bases his cooking.
Beware, as long as you live,
Of judging people by their looks.
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-cock-the-cat-and-the-little-mouse-jean-de-la-fontaine/