The Two Peasants and the Cloud

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

Guillot, said Lucas one day,
in a sad and woeful voice,
don’t you see coming over there
that big black cloud? It is the dreadful sign
of the greatest of misfortunes. Why? Replies Guillot.
—Why? Just look: either I am nothing but a fool,
or that cloud is hail
that will ruin everything, vines, oats, wheat;
the whole new harvest
will be destroyed in a moment.
Nothing will remain; the village in ruins
in three months will have famine,
then plague will come, then we shall all perish.
The plague! Says Guillot: gently, calm yourself,
I don’t see that at all, my friend;
and if I must speak to you according to my feeling,
it is that I see quite the contrary:
for that cloud assuredly
brings no hail, it brings rain;
the earth has been dry for a long time,
it will water our fields well,
our whole harvest must be beautified by it.
We shall have double the hay,
half again as much wheat, an abundance of grapes;
we shall all be in opulence,
and nothing, except the barrels, will be of need to us.
That is seeing rightly! Says Lucas in anger.
But everyone has his own eyes, Guillot replied.
—Oh! Since that is so, I shall say no more,
let us await the end of the affair:
he laughs best who laughs last. —Thank God,
it is not I who weep here.
They were both growing heated; already, in their fury,
they were about to come to blows, when a breath of wind
carried far away from there the frightful cloud;
they had neither hail nor rain.

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-two-peasants-and-the-cloud-jean-pierre-claris-de-florian/