Selected Fables by Fontaine Jean de La

Author:Fontaine, Jean de La [Fontaine, Jean de La]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2014-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

THE VILLAGER AND THE SNAKE

THE VILLAGER AND THE SNAKE

A villager, so Aesop says, possessed

a charitable heart, but was not blessed

with much by way of wisdom. Once he found,

in winter, walking through his family field,

a serpent lying on the snowy ground,

its body stiff and numb, its blood congealed,

a snake from which the life had nearly fled;

within a quarter-hour it would be dead.

The peasant took it back to his abode,

and there, not giving any heed

to how it might repay the debt it owed

for such a charitable deed,

he laid it at the fireside, in the warm,

to heat it and revive its frozen form.

No sooner did it feel the fire

than life returned, but also spite;

it reared its head, it hissed, and rising higher,

it coiled its body back to leap and bite

its saviour, its benefactor too,

indeed its father; who responded: ‘Fie!

If this is how I am repaid by you,

ungrateful creature, you will die.’

So speaking, in his righteous wrath he takes

his hatchet in his hand and chops;

by slicing twice he makes three snakes:

a head, a middle and a tail.

The serpent now in sections hops

and tries to reunite; to no avail:

it couldn’t make a single joint.

Though charity is good, the point

is who deserves it. Ingrates, every one,

will die in sorrow when their days are done.

BOOK VI.13

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