Le Geai paré des plumes du Paon.

 

Un Paon muait ; un Geai prit son plumage ;
Puis après se l'accommoda ;
Puis parmi d'autres Paons tout fier se panada,
Croyant être un beau personnage.
Quelqu'un le reconnut : il se vit bafoué,
Berné, sifflé, moqué, joué,
Et par Messieurs les Paons plumé d'étrange sorte ;
Même vers ses pareils s'étant réfugié,
Il fut par eux mis à la porte.
Il est assez de geais à deux pieds comme lui,
Qui se parent souvent des dépouilles d'autrui, Et que l'on nomme plagiaires.
Je m'en tais ; et ne veux leur causer nul ennui :
Ce ne sont pas là mes affaires.

The Jay in the Feathers of the Peacock. (12)

 

A peacock moulted: soon a jay was seen
Bedeck'd with Argus tail of gold and green,[13]
High strutting, with elated crest,
As much a peacock as the rest.
His trick was recognized and bruited,
His person jeer'd at, hiss'd, and hooted.
The peacock gentry flock'd together,
And pluck'd the fool of every feather.
Nay more, when back he sneak'd to join his race,
They shut their portals in his face.

There is another sort of jay,
The number of its legs the same,
Which makes of borrow'd plumes display,
And plagiary is its name.
But hush! the tribe I'll not offend;
'Tis not my work their ways to mend.

[12] Aesop; Phaedrus, I. 3.
[13] _Argus tail of gold and green._--According to mythology, Argus, surnamed Panoptes (or all-seeing), possessed a hundred eyes, some of which were never closed in sleep. At his death Juno either transformed him into the peacock, or transferred his hundred eyes to the tail of that, her favourite, bird. "Argus tail of gold and green," therefore, means tail endowed with the eyes of Argus.

La Gazza vestita colle penne del Pavone.

 

Si narra che una Gazza,
trovate un giorno d'un Pavon le penne,
con arte intorno a sé le accomodò.
A far mostra di sé quindi la pazza,
con aria di persona alta e solenne,
per il cortile e tra i Pavoni andò.

Ma conosciuta a un tratto, ecco la fischiano,
l'insultano, l'incalzan, la berteggiano,
la beccan, la spennacchian... Mezza morta
fra le sue pari allor scappa la misera,
che in faccia ora le chiudono la porta.

Oh quante son le Gazze come questa
al mondo che le altrui penne si vestono,
che de' plagiari formano la casta!
Potrei scaldarmi contro lor la testa,
ma ciò che ho detto basta.