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Les fables de Jean de La Fontaine : Livre premier
livre premier : La Cigale et la Fourmi Le Corbeau et le Renard La Grenouille qui veut se faire aussi grosse que le boeuf Les deux Mulets Le Loup et le Chien La Génisse, la Chèvre, et la Brebis en société avec le Lion La Besace L’Hirondelle et les petits Oiseaux Le Rat de ville et le Rat des champs Le Loup et l’Agneau L’Homme et son Image Le Dragon à plusieurs têtes et le Dragon à plusieurs queues Les voleurs et l’Âne Simonide préservé par les Dieux La Mort et le Malheureux La Mort et le Bûcheron L’Homme entre deux âges et ses deux Maîtresses Le Renard et la Cigogne L’Enfant et le Maître d’école Le Coq et la Perle Les Frelons et les Mouches à miel Le Chêne et le Roseau
62 pages, Paperback
Published April 16, 2018
About the author
Jean de la Fontaine
2,562 books297 followersFrench writer Jean de la Fontaine collected the stories of Aesop and other persons in his
Fables
(1668-1694).
French literary figures, including Molière and Jean de la Fontaine, gathered at Auteuil, a favorite place.
People most widely read the famous poet Jean de la Fontaine of the 17th century.
According to Gustave Flaubert, only this poet understood and mastered the texture of the language before Victor Marie Hugo. A set of postage stamps, issued in 1995, celebrates la Fontaine. Jean de La Fontaine, le défi , a film, released in April 2007, starred Lorànt Deutsch of his life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de...
French literary figures, including Molière and Jean de la Fontaine, gathered at Auteuil, a favorite place.
People most widely read the famous poet Jean de la Fontaine of the 17th century.
According to Gustave Flaubert, only this poet understood and mastered the texture of the language before Victor Marie Hugo. A set of postage stamps, issued in 1995, celebrates la Fontaine. Jean de La Fontaine, le défi , a film, released in April 2007, starred Lorànt Deutsch of his life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 8, 2025
“A l’oeuvre, on connaît l’artisan.”
“On rencontre sa destinée souvent
par les chemins qu’on prend pour l’éviter.”
“Tout parle dans l'univers;
Il n'est rien qui n'ait son langage.”
“La rareté du fait donne du prix à la chose.”
“Plus fait douceur que violence.”
“De tous les plaisirs, le plaisir le plus doux,
C'est de se voir loué de ceux que chacun loue."
“Les gens sans bruit sont dangereux.
Il n’en est pas ainsi des autres."
“Concluons que la Providence
Sait ce qu'il nous faut mieux que nous.”
“Aucun chemin de fleurs ne conduit à la gloire.”
“Laissez dire les sots, le savoir a son prix.”
“Défendez-vous par la grandeur,
Alléguez la beauté, la vertu, la jeunesse:
La Mort ravit tout sans pudeur.”
“La dispute est d'un grand secours.
Sans elle, on dormirait toujours.”
“Puisqu'il est des vivants,
ne songez plus aux morts.”
“Sur les ailes du Temps,
la tristesse s’envole.”
...
"Can diplomatic dignity
To simple fables condescend?
Can I your famed benignity
Invoke, my muse an ear to lend?
[...]
So, as it pleases, burn or read;
[...]
Meantime, (if you have time to spare,)
Accept a little incense-cheer.
A homely, but an ardent prayer,
And tale in verse, I give you here.
I'll only say, the theme is fit for you.
With praise, which envy must confess
To worth like yours is justly due,
No man on earth needs propping less.
[...]
The people listen'd--not a word.
Meanwhile the orator recurr'd
To bolder tropes--enough to rouse
The dullest blocks that e'er did drowse;
He clothed in life the very dead,
And thunder'd all that could be said.
The wind received his breath,
As to the ear of death.
That beast of many heads and light,
The crowd, accustom'd to the sound
Was all intent upon a sight--
A brace of lads in mimic fight.
A new resource the speaker found.
[...]
Fell to the silence of the grave,
Or moonstruck sea without a wave,
And every eye and ear awoke
To drink the words the patriot spoke."
...
"One night, when potent Sleep had laid
All still within our planet's shade,
One of the two gets up alarm'd,
Runs over to the other's palace,
And hastily the servants rallies.
His startled friend, quick arm'd,
With purse and sword his comrade meets,
And thus right kindly greets:--
'Thou seldom com'st at such an hour;
I take thee for a man of sounder mind
Than to abuse the time for sleep design'd.
Hast lost thy purse, by Fortune's power?
Here's mine. Hast suffer'd insult, or a blow,
I've here my sword--to avenge it let us go.'
'No,' said his friend, 'no need I feel
Of either silver, gold, or steel;
I thank thee for thy friendly zeal.
In sleep I saw thee rather sad,
And thought the truth might be as bad.
Unable to endure the fear,
That cursed dream has brought me here.'
Which think you, reader, loved the most!
If doubtful this, one truth may be proposed:
There's nothing sweeter than a real friend:
Not only is he prompt to lend--
An angler delicate, he fishes
The very deepest of your wishes,
And spares your modesty the task
His friendly aid to ask.
A dream, a shadow, wakes his fear,
When pointing at the object dear."
...
AN ANIMAL IN THE MOON [26]
"While one philosopher [27] affirms
That by our senses we're deceived,
Another swears, in plainest terms,
The senses are to be believed.
The twain are right. Philosophy
Correctly calls us dupes whene'er
Upon mere senses we rely.
But when we wisely rectify
The raw report of eye or ear,
By distance, medium, circumstance,
In real knowledge we advance.
These things hath nature wisely plann'd--
Whereof the proof shall be at hand.
I see the sun: its dazzling glow
Seems but a hand-breadth here below;
But should I see it in its home,
That azure, star-besprinkled dome,
Of all the universe the eye,
Its blaze would fill one half the sky.
The powers of trigonometry
Have set my mind from blunder free.
The ignorant believe it flat;
I make it round, instead of that.
I fasten, fix, on nothing ground it,
And send the earth to travel round it.
In short, I contradict my eyes,
And sift the truth from constant lies.
The mind, not hasty at conclusion,
Resists the onset of illusion,
Forbids the sense to get the better,
And ne'er believes it to the letter.
Between my eyes, perhaps too ready,
And ears as much or more too slow,
A judge with balance true and steady,
I come, at last, some things to know
[...]
The daughters, too, of Memory,--
The Pleasures and the Graces,--
Still show their cheering faces:
We wish for peace, but do not sigh.
The English Charles the secret knows
To make the most of his repose.
And more than this, he'll know the way,
By valour, working sword in hand,
To bring his sea-encircled land
To share the fight it only sees to-day.
Yet, could he but this quarrel quell,
What incense-clouds would grateful swell!
What deed more worthy of his fame!
Augustus, Julius–pray, which Caesar's name
Shines now on story's page with purest flame?
O people happy in your sturdy hearts!
Say, when shall Peace pack up these bloody darts,
And send us all, like you, to softer arts?"
...
"O Solitude! whose secret charms I know--
Retreats that I have loved--when shall I go
To taste, far from a world of din and noise,
Your shades so fresh, where silence has a voice?
When shall their soothing gloom my refuge be?
When shall the sacred Nine, from courts afar,
And cities with all solitude at war,
Engross entire, and teach their votary
The stealthy movements of the spangled nights,
The names and virtues of those errant lights
Which rule o'er human character and fate?
Or, if not born to purposes so great,
The streams, at least, shall win my heartfelt thanks,
While, in my verse, I paint their flowery banks.
Fate shall not weave my life with golden thread,
Nor, 'neath rich fret-work, on a purple bed,
Shall I repose, full late, my care-worn head.
But will my sleep be less a treasure?
If less deep, thereby, and full of pleasure?
I vow it, sweet and gentle as the dew,
Within those deserts sacrifices new;
And when the time shall come to yield my breath,
Without remorse I'll join the ranks of Death."
...
“S’il a quelque plaisir il ne l’a pas sans peine.”
“On rencontre sa destinée souvent
par les chemins qu’on prend pour l’éviter.”
“Tout parle dans l'univers;
Il n'est rien qui n'ait son langage.”
“La rareté du fait donne du prix à la chose.”
“Plus fait douceur que violence.”
“De tous les plaisirs, le plaisir le plus doux,
C'est de se voir loué de ceux que chacun loue."
“Les gens sans bruit sont dangereux.
Il n’en est pas ainsi des autres."
“Concluons que la Providence
Sait ce qu'il nous faut mieux que nous.”
“Aucun chemin de fleurs ne conduit à la gloire.”
“Laissez dire les sots, le savoir a son prix.”
“Défendez-vous par la grandeur,
Alléguez la beauté, la vertu, la jeunesse:
La Mort ravit tout sans pudeur.”
“La dispute est d'un grand secours.
Sans elle, on dormirait toujours.”
“Puisqu'il est des vivants,
ne songez plus aux morts.”
“Sur les ailes du Temps,
la tristesse s’envole.”
...
"Can diplomatic dignity
To simple fables condescend?
Can I your famed benignity
Invoke, my muse an ear to lend?
[...]
So, as it pleases, burn or read;
[...]
Meantime, (if you have time to spare,)
Accept a little incense-cheer.
A homely, but an ardent prayer,
And tale in verse, I give you here.
I'll only say, the theme is fit for you.
With praise, which envy must confess
To worth like yours is justly due,
No man on earth needs propping less.
[...]
The people listen'd--not a word.
Meanwhile the orator recurr'd
To bolder tropes--enough to rouse
The dullest blocks that e'er did drowse;
He clothed in life the very dead,
And thunder'd all that could be said.
The wind received his breath,
As to the ear of death.
That beast of many heads and light,
The crowd, accustom'd to the sound
Was all intent upon a sight--
A brace of lads in mimic fight.
A new resource the speaker found.
[...]
Fell to the silence of the grave,
Or moonstruck sea without a wave,
And every eye and ear awoke
To drink the words the patriot spoke."
...
"One night, when potent Sleep had laid
All still within our planet's shade,
One of the two gets up alarm'd,
Runs over to the other's palace,
And hastily the servants rallies.
His startled friend, quick arm'd,
With purse and sword his comrade meets,
And thus right kindly greets:--
'Thou seldom com'st at such an hour;
I take thee for a man of sounder mind
Than to abuse the time for sleep design'd.
Hast lost thy purse, by Fortune's power?
Here's mine. Hast suffer'd insult, or a blow,
I've here my sword--to avenge it let us go.'
'No,' said his friend, 'no need I feel
Of either silver, gold, or steel;
I thank thee for thy friendly zeal.
In sleep I saw thee rather sad,
And thought the truth might be as bad.
Unable to endure the fear,
That cursed dream has brought me here.'
Which think you, reader, loved the most!
If doubtful this, one truth may be proposed:
There's nothing sweeter than a real friend:
Not only is he prompt to lend--
An angler delicate, he fishes
The very deepest of your wishes,
And spares your modesty the task
His friendly aid to ask.
A dream, a shadow, wakes his fear,
When pointing at the object dear."
...
AN ANIMAL IN THE MOON [26]
"While one philosopher [27] affirms
That by our senses we're deceived,
Another swears, in plainest terms,
The senses are to be believed.
The twain are right. Philosophy
Correctly calls us dupes whene'er
Upon mere senses we rely.
But when we wisely rectify
The raw report of eye or ear,
By distance, medium, circumstance,
In real knowledge we advance.
These things hath nature wisely plann'd--
Whereof the proof shall be at hand.
I see the sun: its dazzling glow
Seems but a hand-breadth here below;
But should I see it in its home,
That azure, star-besprinkled dome,
Of all the universe the eye,
Its blaze would fill one half the sky.
The powers of trigonometry
Have set my mind from blunder free.
The ignorant believe it flat;
I make it round, instead of that.
I fasten, fix, on nothing ground it,
And send the earth to travel round it.
In short, I contradict my eyes,
And sift the truth from constant lies.
The mind, not hasty at conclusion,
Resists the onset of illusion,
Forbids the sense to get the better,
And ne'er believes it to the letter.
Between my eyes, perhaps too ready,
And ears as much or more too slow,
A judge with balance true and steady,
I come, at last, some things to know
[...]
The daughters, too, of Memory,--
The Pleasures and the Graces,--
Still show their cheering faces:
We wish for peace, but do not sigh.
The English Charles the secret knows
To make the most of his repose.
And more than this, he'll know the way,
By valour, working sword in hand,
To bring his sea-encircled land
To share the fight it only sees to-day.
Yet, could he but this quarrel quell,
What incense-clouds would grateful swell!
What deed more worthy of his fame!
Augustus, Julius–pray, which Caesar's name
Shines now on story's page with purest flame?
O people happy in your sturdy hearts!
Say, when shall Peace pack up these bloody darts,
And send us all, like you, to softer arts?"
...
"O Solitude! whose secret charms I know--
Retreats that I have loved--when shall I go
To taste, far from a world of din and noise,
Your shades so fresh, where silence has a voice?
When shall their soothing gloom my refuge be?
When shall the sacred Nine, from courts afar,
And cities with all solitude at war,
Engross entire, and teach their votary
The stealthy movements of the spangled nights,
The names and virtues of those errant lights
Which rule o'er human character and fate?
Or, if not born to purposes so great,
The streams, at least, shall win my heartfelt thanks,
While, in my verse, I paint their flowery banks.
Fate shall not weave my life with golden thread,
Nor, 'neath rich fret-work, on a purple bed,
Shall I repose, full late, my care-worn head.
But will my sleep be less a treasure?
If less deep, thereby, and full of pleasure?
I vow it, sweet and gentle as the dew,
Within those deserts sacrifices new;
And when the time shall come to yield my breath,
Without remorse I'll join the ranks of Death."
...
“S’il a quelque plaisir il ne l’a pas sans peine.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 11, 2025
mérite une étoile bonus pour avoir bercé mon enfance, merci Jean
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews