The Shepherd and His Flock

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

What? Will there always be missing
Someone from this foolish flock!
The Wolf will always gobble them up on me!
In vain I count them: they were more than a thousand,
And they let our poor Robin be snatched away;
Robin the sheep who through the town
Followed me for a bit of bread,
And who would have followed me to the ends of the earth.
Alas! he could hear the sound of my bagpipe!
He sensed me coming from a hundred paces around.
Ah, poor Robin the sheep!
When Guillot had finished this funeral oration
And made Robin’s memory famous,
He harangued the whole flock,
The leaders, the multitude, and even the least lamb,
Imploring them to hold firm:
That alone would suffice to drive off the Wolves.
On the faith of an honorable people, they all promised him
Not to budge any more than a boundary stone.
We want, they said, to smother the glutton
Who took Robin the sheep from us.
Each answers for it with his head.
Guillot believed them, and feasted them.
Meanwhile, before it was night,
A new mishap occurred,
A Wolf appeared; the whole flock fled:
It was not a Wolf, it was only its shadow.
Harangue wicked soldiers,
They will promise to rage;
But at the slightest danger farewell to all their courage:
Your example and your cries will not hold them back.

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-shepherd-and-his-flock-jean-de-la-fontaine/