The Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine

Jean La Fontaine,David Schorr, Norman R Shapiro

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780252091674
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

Inspired new translations of the work of one of the world's greatest fabulists

Told in an elegant style, Jean de la Fontaine's (1621-95) charming animal fables depict sly foxes and scheming cats, vain birds and greedy wolves, all of which subtly express his penetrating insights into French society and the beasts found in all of us. Norman R. Shapiro has been translating La Fontaine's fables for over twenty years, capturing the original work's lively mix of plain and archaic language. This newly complete translation is destined to set the English standard for this work.Awarded the Lewis Galantière Prize by the American Translators Association, 2008.

· BOOK XII ·

THE COMPANIONS OF ULYSSES

FOR THE DUC DE BOURGOGNE ¹

My prince! Sole object of the gods’ concern,

Pray let my incense, on your altars, burn

Its praise perfumed. Pardon me if I choose

To proffer you these tributes from my muse

A trifle late; my labors and my years

Are my excuse. Your mind ever appears

Stronger and stronger, flying, fleet of wing,

Whilst mine grows weak and wanes,² diminishing

Moment by moment. He who fathered you—

A hero, he!—yearns to fly forth and do

Mars’ work as speedily! And if his hand

Is staid in glory’s quest; if he

Races not after victory

With giant’s pace, yet must one understand

The fault is not his own: our king divine

Restrains him, whom one single month had made

The conquering master of the Rhine.³

No doubt, for such an escapade

Great speed was necessary; but today

It might prove rash… Well, be that as it may,

I natter on… The gods of love and laughter

Frequent your court, and such as they—good sense

And reason—shun too lengthy eloquence;

Whence I suggest that, hereinafter,

You would do well to heed those latter

And pay mind to a certain matter

In which the Greeks were once concerned:

Namely, the time when men to beasts were turned,

Thanks to a lack of circumspection.

Ulysses and his comrades had, for ten

Long years, wandered without direction,

Purposeless, at the winds’ discretion, when

They happened on a shore where Circe⁴—

Apollo’s daughter, she—held court,

Holding the travelers at her mercy

By feeding them the tastiest sort

Of brew, seasoned with poison; one that had,

First, made them lose their reason, then their features

And human form, until, gone mad,

All had become most different creatures.

Bears, lions, elephants, of massive shape;

Some, like the mole (in Latin, double-gendered!),⁵

Far smaller. Thus was each one rendered

A proper beast. Nor did any escape

This metamorphosis, except

Ulysses, who, somehow had kept

From drinking of the treacherous draught.

Now, such a hero, glib of tongue, was he,

And fair of mien, that cunningly

He so contrived that the enchantress quaffed

A poison like her own;⁶ whence she—

As goddesses are wont to do—confessed

To him the passion that consumed her breast.

Too clever not to take advantage of

The revelation of her love,

He makes her promise to release the rest

From their enchantment. “But, can you be sure,”

She will protest, “that they would not endure

Their new condition, and as beasts remain?

Go ask them!” And he does. “My friends, I can

Turn each of you once more into a man.

Speak! Shall I do so?” “What? Am I insane?”

Bellows the lion with his roar.

“Give up the gifts that I have traded for?

Fang and claw have I now, and I would fain

Not lose the strength to use them! I am king!

Shall I become a simple underling,

A simple citizen of Ithaca?

Thank you, my friend. But pshaw! and bah!

I will not change. I am content.”

Ulysses left the lion and went

To ask the bear. “My friend, you used to be

A handsome man! Now look at you!”

The bear growls: “I live fancy-free.

As for my looks, it seems to me

I am like any bear! Or do

You think you have the right, so flippantly

To judge me by yourself? Pish-tush! Pooh-pooh!

You can be sure my lady bear

Finds me just so! Be off! I care

Little for your concern or your lament.

I will not change. I am content.”

Ulysses goes to ask the wolf, expecting

That he too will decline, rejecting

The offer, saying: “Friend, perplexed am I.

A fair young shepherdess’s plaintive cry

Wafts on the wind. She much bewails the fact

That you have gluttonously attacked

Her sheep, and wolfed them down! You, who before

Were her stalwart defender? You, who swore

To save her flock? You, once so kind, so good?

Come, friend! I pray you, leave this wood

And be an upright man once more!” “A what?

Upright?” the wolf responded. “But

Is there such? I think not. I could

Long search in vain for one! You call me vicious,

Pity my victims, but can you ignore

That you yourselves find sheep a dish delicious?

If I should be ‘an upright man once more,’

Shou...