The Hare and the Tortoise

Fable by Jean De La Fontaine Collection The FablesThemes Animals, LifePeriod 17th century

Running is useless; one must start on time.
The Hare and the Tortoise bear witness to this.
Let us bet, said the latter, that you will not reach
This goal as soon as I. — As soon? Are you sane?
Replied the nimble animal.
My good gossip, you must purge yourself
With four grains of hellebore.
— Sane or not, I bet again.
Thus it was done: and of the two
We placed the stakes near the goal:
What they were, that is not the matter,
Nor which judge was agreed upon.
Our Hare had only four steps to take;
I mean those he takes when, about to be caught,
He distances himself from the dogs, sends them back to the Calends,
And makes them tramp across the moors.
Having, I say, time to spare to graze,
To sleep, and to listen
From where the wind blows, he lets the Tortoise
Go at her Senator’s pace.
She sets off, she exerts herself;
She hastens with slowness.
He meanwhile scorns such a victory,
Holds the wager of little glory,
Believes his honor is at stake
In starting late. He grazes, he rests,
He amuses himself with anything else
But the wager. At last, when he saw
That the other was almost at the end of the course,
He shot off like an arrow; but the bursts he made
Were vain: the Tortoise arrived first.
Well then! she cried to him, was I not right?
Of what use is your speed to you?
Me, to win! and what would it be
If you carried a house?

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-hare-and-the-tortoise-jean-de-la-fontaine/