Français
Español
Italiano
Deutsch
Português
Captain Fox went in company
With his friend Goat, most highly horned.
The latter saw no farther than his nose;
The other was a past master in trickery.
Thirst obliged them to go down into a well.
There each of them quenched his thirst.
After both had taken abundantly of it,
The Fox said to the Goat: What shall we do, gossip?
Drinking is not all; we must get out of here.
Lift your feet up high, and your horns too:
Place them against the wall. Along your spine
I will climb first;
Then, raising myself on your horns,
With the help of this machine,
I will get out of this place,
After which I will pull you out.
“By my beard,” said the other, “it is good; and I praise
Sensible people like you.
I would never, as for me,
Have found this secret, I admit.”
The Fox gets out of the well, leaves his companion,
And gives him a fine sermon
To urge him to patience.
“If heaven had,” he says, “given you by excellence
As much judgment as beard on your chin,
You would not have, lightly,
Gone down into this well. Now, farewell, I am out of it.
Try to get out yourself, and make every effort:
For as for me, I have a certain affair
That does not allow me to stop along the way.”
In every thing we must consider the end.
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-fox-and-the-goat-jean-de-la-fontaine/