The Philosopher and the Tawny Owl

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

Persecuted, outlawed, driven from his refuge,
for having called things by their name,
a poor philosopher wandered from town to town,
carrying with him all his goods, his reason.
One day as he pondered the fruit of his vigils,
it was in a great wood, he sees a tawny owl
surrounded by jays, by crows,
who harried him crying:
he is a scoundrel, he is an impious wretch,
an enemy of the fatherland;
he must be plucked alive: yes, yes, let us pluck, let us pluck,
then we shall judge him.
And all swooped down on him; the wretched beast,
turning and turning again his good and big head,
told them, but in vain, excellent reasons.
Moved by his misfortune, for philosophy
makes us gentler and more humane,
our sage puts the enemy cohort to flight,
then says to the tawny owl: why did these assassins
want your life?
What have you done to them? The bird answered him:
nothing at all; my only crime is to see clearly at night.

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-philosopher-and-the-tawny-owl-jean-pierre-claris-de-florian/