Français
Español
Italiano
Deutsch
Português
I ought, in the name of Royalty,
To have begun my Work.
Seen from a certain angle,
Messer Gaster is its image.
If he has some need, the whole body feels it.
The members, growing tired of working for him,
Each resolved to live as a Gentleman,
Doing nothing, citing Gaster as their example.
Without us, they said, he would have to live on air.
We sweat, we toil, like beasts of burden.
And for whom? For him alone; we do not profit from it:
Our care amounts only to furnishing his meals.
Let us strike, it is a trade he wants us to learn.
So said, so done. The hands cease to take,
The arms to act, the legs to walk.
All told Gaster to go and seek it elsewhere.
It was a mistake they repented of.
Soon the poor wretches fell into languor;
No more new blood formed in the heart:
Each member suffered from it, their strength was lost.
By this means, the rebels saw
That the one they thought idle and lazy
Contributed to the common interest more than they.
This can be applied to Royal grandeur.
It receives and gives, and the thing is equal.
Everything works for it, and reciprocally
Everything draws its nourishment from it.
It sustains the artisan by his labors,
Enriches the Merchant, pays the Magistrate,
Maintains the Ploughman, gives pay to the soldier,
Distributes in a hundred places its sovereign graces,
Alone supports the entire State.
Menenius knew well how to say it.
The Commons was about to separate from the Senate.
The discontented said that it had the whole Empire,
Power, treasures, honor, dignity;
Whereas all the evil was on their side,
The tributes, the taxes, the fatigues of war.
The people were already posted outside the walls,
Most were going to seek another land,
When Menenius made them see
That they were like the members,
And by this apologue, renowned among Fables,
Brought them back to their duty.
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-members-and-the-stomach-jean-de-la-fontaine/