Le Pâtre et le Lion.

 

Les Fables ne sont pas ce qu'elles semblent être.
Le plus simple animal nous y tient lieu de Maître.
Une Morale nue apporte de l'ennui ;
Le conte fait passer le précepte avec lui.
En ces sortes de feinte il faut instruire et plaire,
Et conter pour conter me semble peu d'affaire.
C'est par cette raison qu'égayant leur esprit,
Nombre de gens fameux en ce genre ont écrit.
Tous ont fui l'ornement et le trop d'étendue.
On ne voit point chez eux de parole perdue.
Phèdre était si succinct qu'aucuns l'en ont blâmé.
Esope en moins de mots s'est encore exprimé.
Mais sur tous certain Grec renchérit et se pique
D'une élégance Laconique.
Il renferme toujours son conte en quatre Vers ;
Bien ou mal, je le laisse à juger aux Experts.
Voyons-le avec Esope en un sujet semblable.
L'un amène un Chasseur, l'autre un Pâtre, en sa Fable.
J'ai suivi leur projet quant à l'événement,
Y cousant en chemin quelque trait seulement.
Voici comme à peu près Esope le raconte.
Un Pâtre à ses brebis trouvant quelque méconte,
Voulut à toute force attraper le Larron.
Il s'en va près d'un antre, et tend à l'environ
Des lacs à prendre Loups, soupçonnant cette engeance.
Avant que partir de ces lieux,
Si tu fais, disait-il, ô Monarque des Dieux,
Que le drôle à ces lacs se prenne en ma présence
Et que je goûte ce plaisir,
Parmi vingt Veaux je veux choisir
Le plus gras, et t'en faire offrande.
A ces mots sort de l'antre un Lion grand et fort.
Le Pâtre se tapit, et dit à demi mort :
Que l'homme ne sait guère, hélas ! ce qu'il demande !
Pour trouver le Larron qui détruit mon troupeau,
Et le voir en ces lacs pris avant que je parte,
O monarque des Dieux, je t'ai promis un veau :
Je te promets un boeuf si tu fais qu'il s'écarte.
C'est ainsi que l'a dit le principal Auteur :
Passons à son imitateur.

The Sherperd and the Lion. (1)

 

Of fables judge not by their face;
They give the simplest brute a teacher's place.
Bare precepts were inert and tedious things;
The story gives them life and wings.
But story for the story's sake
Were sorry business for the wise;
As if, for pill that one should take,
You gave the sugary disguise.
For reasons such as these,
Full many writers great and good
Have written in this frolic mood,
And made their wisdom please.
But tinsel'd style they all have shunn'd with care;
With them one never sees a word to spare.
Of Phaedrus some have blamed the brevity,
While Aesop uses fewer words than he.
A certain Greek,[2] however, beats
Them both in his larconic feats.
Each tale he locks in verses four;
The well or ill I leave to critic lore.
At Aesop's side to see him let us aim,
Upon a theme substantially the same.
The one selects a lover of the chase;
A shepherd comes, the other's tale to grace.
Their tracks I keep, though either tale may grow
A little in its features as I go.

The one which Aesop tells is nearly this:--
A shepherd from his flock began to miss,
And long'd to catch the stealer of, his sheep.
Before a cavern, dark and deep,
Where wolves retired by day to sleep,
Which he suspected as the thieves,
He set his trap among the leaves;
And, ere he left the place,
He thus invoked celestial grace:--
'O king of all the powers divine,
Against the rogue but grant me this delight,
That this my trap may catch him in my sight,
And I, from twenty calves of mine,
Will make the fattest thine.'
But while the words were on his tongue,
Forth came a lion great and strong.
Down crouch'd the man of sheep, and said,
With shivering fright half dead,
'Alas! that man should never be aware
Of what may be the meaning of his prayer!
To catch the robber of my flocks,
O king of gods, I pledged a calf to thee:
If from his clutches thou wilt rescue me,
I'll raise my offering to an ox.'

'Tis thus the master-author[3] tells the story:
Now hear the rival of his glory.

[1] Aesop.
[2] _A certain Greek_.--Gabrias.--La Fontaine. This is Babrias, the Greek fabulist, to whom La Fontaine gives the older form of his name.
La Fontaine's strictures on this "rival" of Aesop proceed from the fact that he read the author in the corrupted form of the edition by
Ignatius Magister (ninth century). It was not till a century after La Fontaine wrote, that the fame of Babrias was cleared by Bentley and Tyrwhitt, who brought his Fables to light in their original form.
[3] _Master-author, &c._--The "master-author" is Aesop; the rival, Gabrias, or Babrias. The last line refers the reader to the following fable for comparison. In the original editions of La Fontaine, the two fables appear together with the heading "Fables I. et II."

Il Pastore e il Leone.

 

Le favole non son soltanto favole,
ma quasi una moral sono ristretta.
Coloro che s'annoiano alla predica
ascoltan di buon cuor la barzelletta.

Contare per contar è cosa semplice,
ma al ben mirano quei, che in tutti i tempi
coltivaron quest'arte antica e classica
di raccontar aneddoti ed esempi.

Questi in poche parole il succo stringono
e diritti camminano allo scopo.
Fedro parve succinto ai vecchi critici,
ma ancor di lui più lesto è il vecchio Esopo.

Che dirò di quel Babria sì laconico,
che strinse in quattro versi i suoi racconti?
Se ciò sia bene o mal vedano i critici,
contentiamoci intanto dei confronti.

Al qual intento conterò del Frigio
la nota favoletta del Pastore,
e con qualche ricamo sottilissimo
quella che Babria fe' sul Cacciatore.

Ritrovando ogni momento
qualche vuoto nell'armento,
un pastore sospettò
che vi fosse un lupo infame,
e un gran laccio nello strame
per pigliarlo collocò.

Quindi esclama: - A te il più bello,
o gran padre degli dèi,
e de' miei
il più candido vitello
sull'altare io sgozzerò,
se mi fai che il reo quadrupede
resti preso nel tranello -.

Non avea quest'orazione
terminata, che un leone
grosso e forte
dalla grotta ecco sbucò.
Col pallore della morte
il pastor perdé la bussola
e il suo voto allor cangiò:

- Padre Giove, padre Giove,
se un vitello poco fa
t'ho promesso,
ti prometto adesso un bove -.

Voglion dir queste parole
che il mortale mai non sa,
ciò che vuole e che non vuole.