Les Frelons et les mouches à miel.

 

A l'oeuvre on connaît l'Artisan.
Quelques rayons de miel sans maître se trouvèrent :
Des Frelons les réclamèrent ;
Des Abeilles s'opposant,
Devant certaine Guêpe on traduisit la cause.
Il était malaisé de décider la chose.
Les témoins déposaient qu'autour de ces rayons
Des animaux ailés, bourdonnants, un peu longs,
De couleur fort tannée*, et tels que les Abeilles,
Avaient longtemps paru. Mais quoi ! dans les Frelons
Ces enseignes étaient pareilles.
La Guêpe, ne sachant que dire à ces raisons,
Fit enquête nouvelle, et pour plus de lumière
Entendit une fourmilière.
Le point n'en put être éclairci.
"De grâce, à quoi bon tout ceci ?
Dit une Abeille fort prudente,
Depuis tantôt six mois que la cause est pendante,
Nous voici comme aux premiers jours.
Pendant cela le miel se gâte.
Il est temps désormais que le juge se hâte :
N'a-t-il point assez léché l'Ours ?
Sans tant de contredits, et d'interlocutoires,
Et de fatras, et de grimoires,
Travaillons, les Frelons et nous :
On verra qui sait faire, avec un suc si doux,
Des cellules si bien bâties. "
Le refus des Frelons fit voir
Que cet art passait leur savoir ;
Et la Guêpe adjugea le miel à leurs parties.
Plût à Dieu qu'on réglât ainsi tous les procès !
Que des Turcs en cela l'on suivît la méthode* !
Le simple sens commun nous tiendrait lieu de Code ;
Il ne faudrait point tant de frais ;
Au lieu qu'on nous mange, on nous gruge,
On nous mine par des longueurs ;
On fait tant, à la fin, que l'huître est pour le juge,
Les écailles pour les plaideurs.

The Hornets and The Bees. (26)

 

"The artist by his work is known."--
A piece of honey-comb, one day,
Discover'd as a waif and stray,
The hornets treated as their own.
Their title did the bees dispute,
And brought before a wasp the suit.
The judge was puzzled to decide,
For nothing could be testified
Save that around this honey-comb
There had been seen, as if at home,
Some longish, brownish, buzzing creatures,
Much like the bees in wings and features.
But what of that? for marks the same,
The hornets, too, could truly claim.
Between assertion, and denial,
The wasp, in doubt, proclaim'd new trial;
And, hearing what an ant-hill swore,
Could see no clearer than before.
'What use, I pray, of this expense?'
At last exclaim'd a bee of sense.
'We've labour'd months in this affair,
And now are only where we were.
Meanwhile the honey runs to waste:
'Tis time the judge should show some haste.
The parties, sure, have had sufficient bleeding,
Without more fuss of scrawls and pleading.
Let's set ourselves at work, these drones and we,
And then all eyes the truth may plainly see,
Whose art it is that can produce
The magic cells, the nectar juice.'
The hornets, flinching on their part,
Show that the work transcends their art.
The wasp at length their title sees,
And gives the honey to the bees.
Would God that suits at laws with us
Might all be managed thus!
That we might, in the Turkish mode,
Have simple common sense for code!
They then were short and cheap affairs,
Instead of stretching on like ditches,
Ingulfing in their course all riches,--
The parties leaving for their shares,
The shells (and shells there might be moister)
From which the court has suck'd the oyster.[27]

[26] Phaedrus, III. 12.
[27] _The court has suck'd the oyster_.--The humorous idea of the lawyers, the litigants, and the oyster, is more fully treated in Fable IX., Book IX.

 

I Calabroni e le Api.

 

Era sorta fra l'Api e i Calabroni
per un favo di miel una gran lite,
di cui volevano essere padroni
d'ambo le parti e con furore tale,
che infine il grande affare
d'una Vespa fu tratto al tribunale.

La Vespa non sapea che giudicare.
Intorno al miel alcuni testimoni
dicean d'aver veduto bestie alate
giallo-nere, ronzanti e fusolate,
ma in queste condizioni
potevan esser api e calabroni.

Torna la Vespa allora a investigare,
interroga un intero formicaio,
ma le cose non restano più chiare.
Allor disse una Pecchia: - O non vi pare
che duri già da un pezzo questo guaio?
Il miele va in malora e a danno nostro;
ché mentre noi spendiamo in bollo e in tassa,
in carta, in procedura ed in inchiostro,
del nostro miel è il giudice che ingrassa.
Andiam invece ed api e calabroni
a lavorar nell'orto,
e le case ed i favi più ben fatti
indicheranno la ragione e il torto -.
Naturalmente dissero di no
i Calabroni, e il miele
alle Pecchie la Vespa giudicò.

Magari si facesse ogni processo,
come dicon che facciano in Turchia,
senza tutta la lunga litania
di spese e ciarle inutili d'adesso!
Il buon senso val più di tutti quanti
i codici, o, sofferto strazi e croci,
il giudice di solito ha le noci,
e non restan che i gusci ai litiganti.