The Dervish, the Crow, and the Falcon

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

One of those pious hermits
who, detaching their hearts from the things of this world below,
vow to renounce goods they do not have.
To live off the goods of their brothers,
a dervish, in a word, went about begging
and praying,
when the plaintive cries of a young crow
left by cruel parents in its nest,
almost still without feathers, came to his ear.
Our dervish looks, and sees the poor bird
stretching on its nest its half-naked head:
in an instant, from the height of the cloud,
a falcon descends toward that nest,
and, its beak filled with food,
it brings its nourishment
to the orphan that moans.
O adorable providence of mighty Allah!
cried the dervish: rather than an innocent
perish without help, you make compassionate
the least pitiful of birds!
And I, son of the Most High, would seek my bread!
No, by the prophet I swear it:
henceforth tranquil, I entrust my destiny
to the one who takes care of all nature.
That said, the dervish, lying at full length,
begins to gape at the crows,
admires the marvels of creation,
the profound order of the universe.
Evening came, our solitary
felt a little appetite while saying his prayer:
it is nothing, he said; my supper will come.
Supper does not come. Come, he must sleep;
it will be for tomorrow. The next day the dawn
appears, and no breakfast.
This begins to astonish him;
yet he persists still,
and believes at every moment he sees his dinner coming.
No one arrived; the day is done,
and the fasting dervish watched with an envious eye
that falcon which kept coming
to feed its cherished fledgling.
Suddenly he hears it address him thus:
as long as you could not, my dear,
provide for your own needs,
I took tender care of you;
now that you are grown,
I will come no more. Allah commends to us
the weak and the unfortunate:
but to be weak, or lazy,
is a great difference.
We receive existence
only to work for ourselves or for others.
Whoever exempts himself from this sacred duty
is punished by providence
by need or by boredom.
The falcon speaks and departs. Touched by this language,
the converted dervish recognizes his error,
and, reaching the first village,
becomes a plowman’s servant.

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-dervish-the-crow-and-the-falcon-jean-pierre-claris-de-florian/