La Fontaine’s “Le corbeau et le renard”: A Fable of a (Literally) “Outfoxed” Crow!
Posted on 31. Jan, 2011 by Hichem in Culture, Literature, Vocabulary
Combien de leçons peut-on tirer de cette fable?
(How many lessons can one draw from this fable?)
Jean de La Fontaine’s Le corbeau et le renard (The Crow and the Fox) tells the story of a literally -and even “literaturely”- “outfoxed” corbeau (crow), who was duped by the -shall we say- “cheesy lines” of a Master Fox—A precious lesson which would not be lost on the dispossessed corbeau afterwards, and which is, as La Fontaine puts it, at least worth un fromage !
* * *
* * *
Maître Corbeau, sur un arbre perché,
Master Crow perched on a tree
Tenait en son bec un fromage
Was holding a cheese in his beak
Maître Renard, par l’odeur alléché
Master Fox, attracted by the smell
Lui tint à peu près ce langage:
Said something along the lines of:
“Hé ! bonjour, Monsieur du Corbeau,
“Well, Hello Mister Crow!
Que vous êtes joli ! Que vous me semblez beau !
How cute you are! How beautiful you seem to me!
Sans mentir, si votre ramage
Frankly, if your voice
Se rapporte à votre plumage
Matches your plumage
Vous êtes le Phénix des hôtes de ces bois.”
You are the Phoenix of all the inhabitants of these woods.”
A ces mots le Corbeau ne se sent pas de joie
To these words, the Crow is overjoyed
Et pour montrer sa belle voix
And in order to show off his beautiful voice
Il ouvre un large bec, laisse tomber sa proie
He opens wide his beak, lets his prey fall
Le Renard s’en saisit, et dit : “Mon bon Monsieur,
The Fox grabs it, and says: “My good Sir,
Apprenez que tout flatteur
You ought to learn that every flatterer
Vit aux dépens de celui qui l’écoute :
Lives at the expense of the one who listens to him:
Cette leçon vaut bien un fromage, sans doute. “
This lesson, no doubt, is well worth a cheese.”
Le Corbeau, honteux et confus,
The Crow, ashamed and confused,
Jura, mais un peu tard, qu’on ne l’y prendrait plus
Swore, but a little too late, that he would not be duped again
* * *
Another animated and musical version of Lafontaine’s famous fable—with a little “personal twist” before “La Fin“!
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12 Responses to “La Fontaine’s “Le corbeau et le renard”: A Fable of a (Literally) “Outfoxed” Crow!”
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Thanks a lot.
you know we learn this poem at school.
i mean all of us Iranian.
but we dont know that it is from a french poet.
i pass this email to about 1000 peple trough my email.
we all wonderd about it.
c’est FORMIDABLE!
Mer30 Beaucoup.
Hi
I’m Nasrin
I’m from Iran
It was very nice
bonjour
je suis azadeh
je suis iranienne
c’etait beau…
hi my name is haniyeh i,m very suprised because I think this poem from iran
thanks alot for infomation
have a good day
oh i,m from iran bandar abbas
salute , je m`appelle Pari. I surprised, when i saw these all comment from Iranian people … I am Iranian too! and i love to speak french, but they are right because all of us learned this poem at primary school, and we didn’t know it could be French.
Salut, je suis un Kabyle de l’Algérie, ben cette jolie fable ” le renard et le corbeau) je l’ai déjà lu, dans l’école mais aussi sur le net…
je veut dire simplement que la Fontaine c’est énorme, c’est vraiment ce que il a fait….
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw
Bonsoir je parle un pau francais
Hi i am Shiva i love learning French
C’est une bonne leçon!
Bonjour Ali and Pari, and thank you for your message!
Be ready to be even more surprised:
You probably learned this poem in Iran, not because it is originally French, but rather because it is originally Iranian.
This fable, like many others, reached the West through the 8th century Arabic works of Persian writer Ibn Al Muqafa’ (ابن المقفع), better known in Iran as “Dadoe.”
But that’s not all: Ibn Al Muqafa’ was in turn inspired from the ancient Indian collection of fables “Panchatantra“, known in Europe as the “Fables of Bidpai” (sometimes spelled “Pilpai”), or the “Morall Philosophie of Doni“, which were published in England a few decades before the birth of La Fontaine.