The Wasp and the Bee

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

In the calyx of a flower,
the wasp one day, seeing the bee,
approached her, calling her sister.
That name rings harshly on the ear
of the insect full of pride,
who answers her: We sisters! My dear,
since when this kinship?
But it is since all our life,
the wasp tells her with wrath:
consider me, I pray you:
I have wings just like you,
same size, same build;
and, if you need more,
our stingers are just as alike.
It is true, replied the bee,
we have a similar weapon,
but for different uses.
Yours serves your insolence,
mine repels offense;
you provoke, I defend myself.

Florian

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

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