Le Combat des Rats et des Belettes.

 

La nation des Belettes,
Non plus que celle des Chats,
Ne veut aucun bien aux Rats ;
Et sans les portes étrètes
De leurs habitations,
L'animal à longue échine
En ferait, je m'imagine,
De grandes destructions.
Or une certaine année
Qu'il en était à foison,
Leur Roi, nommé Ratapon,
Mit en campagne une armée.
Les Belettes, de leur part,
Déployèrent l'étendard.
Si l'on croit la renommée,
La Victoire balança :
Plus d'un guéret s'engraissa
Du sang de plus d'une bande.
Mais la perte la plus grande
Tomba presque en tous endroits
Sur le peuple Souriquois.
Sa déroute fut entière,
Quoi que pût faire Artarpax,
Psicarpax, Méridarpax,
Qui, tout couverts de poussière,
Soutinrent assez longtemps
Les efforts des combattants.
Leur résistance fut vaine :
Il fallut céder au sort :
Chacun s'enfuit au plus fort,
Tant Soldat que Capitaine.
Les Princes périrent tous.
La racaille, dans des trous
Trouvant sa retraite prête,
Se sauva sans grand travail.
Mais les Seigneurs sur leur tête
Ayant chacun un plumail,
Des cornes ou des aigrettes,
Soit comme marques d'honneur,
Soit afin que les Belettes
En conçussent plus de peur,
Cela causa leur malheur.
Trou, ni fente, ni crevasse
Ne fut large assez pour eux,
Au lieu que la populace
Entrait dans les moindres creux.
La principale jonchée
Fut donc des principaux Rats.
Une tête empanachée
N'est pas petit embarras.
Le trop superbe équipage
Peut souvent en un passage
Causer du retardement.
Les petits, en toute affaire
Esquivent fort aisément ;
Les grands ne le peuvent faire.

The Battle of the Rats and the Weasels. (7)

 

The weasels live, no more than cats,
On terms of friendship with the rats;
And, were it not that these
Through doors contrive to squeeze
Too narrow for their foes,
The animals long-snouted
Would long ago have routed,
And from the planet scouted
Their race, as I suppose.

One year it did betide,
When they were multiplied,
An army took the field
Of rats, with spear and shield,
Whose crowded ranks led on
A king named Ratapon.
The weasels, too, their banner
Unfurl'd in warlike manner.
As Fame her trumpet sounds,
The victory balanced well;
Enrich'd were fallow grounds
Where slaughter'd legions fell;
But by said trollop's tattle,
The loss of life in battle
Thinn'd most the rattish race
In almost every place;
And finally their rout
Was total, spite of stout
Artarpax and Psicarpax,
And valiant Meridarpax,[8]
Who, cover'd o'er with dust,
Long time sustain'd their host
Down sinking on the plain.
Their efforts were in vain;
Fate ruled that final hour,
(Inexorable power!)
And so the captains fled
As well as those they led;
The princes perish'd all.
The undistinguish'd small
In certain holes found shelter,
In crowding, helter-skelter;
But the nobility
Could not go in so free,
Who proudly had assumed
Each one a helmet plumed;
We know not, truly, whether
For honour's sake the feather,
Or foes to strike with terror;
But, truly, 'twas their error.
Nor hole, nor crack, nor crevice
Will let their head-gear in;
While meaner rats in bevies
An easy passage win;--
So that the shafts of fate
Do chiefly hit the great.

A feather in the cap
Is oft a great mishap.
An equipage too grand
Comes often to a stand
Within a narrow place.
The small, whate'er the case,
With ease slip through a strait,
Where larger folks must wait.

[7] Phaedrus, Book IV. 6.
[8] Names of rats, invented by Homer.--Translator.

Battaglia di Topi e di Donnole.

 

Se penetrar le Donnole
potesser nelle strette
casupole dei Topi,
vedreste quelle bestie in men d'un'ora
fare di lor polpette,
tanto è l'odio che sempre le divora.

Un anno che sul numero
poté contar de' suoi
re Topolon, l'esercito
spiegò dei Topi eroi.
Di contro anche le Donnole
spiegaron le bandiere,
e le schiere respingono le schiere.

Ondeggia la vittoria,
di sangue i campi scorrono,
ma alfin, narra l'istoria,
i Topi le toccarono.
In fuga vanno, scappano,
per quanto Psicarpace
e il gran Meridarpace e il forte, invitto
Artapace sostengano il conflitto.

Alfin bisognò cedere
soldati e generali:
ma se la minutaglia
e la minor canaglia
poté trovar ricovero
nei buchi, nelle fratte,
e ringraziar le stelle,
i pezzi grossi vi lasciâr la pelle.

E la ragion fu questa
che sui nemici per incuter tema,
o per segno di grado e dignità,
avea ciascuno in testa
qualche cimiero o piuma o diadema.

Se pei crepi passò la razzapaglia,
per quanto numerosa,
per le piume non fu la stessa cosa.

Non è picciol pericolo,
amici, aver la testa coronata,
e i troppi lunghi strascichi
tolsero a fior d'eroi la ritirata.
Qualunque evento accada,
state sicuri, o piccoli,
che avrete per scappar sempre una strada.