{"id":20360,"date":"2014-05-28T04:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T02:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=20360"},"modified":"2017-10-23T12:30:09","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T10:30:09","slug":"les-fables-de-la-fontaine-le-chene-et-le-roseau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/les-fables-de-la-fontaine-le-chene-et-le-roseau\/","title":{"rendered":"Les Fables de La Fontaine: Le Ch\u00eane et le Roseau"},"content":{"rendered":"

Le Ch\u00eane et le Roseau<\/b> (The Oak and the Reed) is one of my favorite fables from the 17th<\/sup> century fabulist Jean de La Fontaine. I clearly remember having to recite it in front of the class when I was in second grade. Unlike the previous fables we explored\u2014Le Corbeau et le Renard<\/b><\/a> (The Crow and the Fox), La Cigale et la Fourmi<\/b><\/a> (The Grasshopper and the Ant) and Les Deux Mulets<\/b><\/a> (The Two Mules)\u2014which tell the story of animals and insects, this fable is an interaction between two plants: an oak and a reed.<\/p>\n

C\u2019est une histoire remarkable<\/b> (It\u2019s a remarkable story) and one with avec une bonne morale<\/b> (a good moral).<\/p>\n

Le Ch\u00eane un jour dit au Roseau :
\nVous avez bien sujet d\u2019accuser la Nature.
\nUn Roitelet pour vous est un pesant fardeau.
\nLe moindre vent qui d\u2019aventure
\nFait rider la face de l\u2019eau
\nVous oblige \u00e0 baisser la t\u00eate :
\nCependant que mon front au Caucase pareil,
\nNon content d\u2019arr\u00eater les rayons du Soleil,
\nBrave l\u2019effort de la temp\u00eate.
\nTout vous est Aquilon ; tout me semble Z\u00e9phyr.
\nEncor si vous naissiez \u00e0 l\u2019abri du feuillage
\nDont je couvre le voisinage ;
\nVous n\u2019auriez pas tant \u00e0 souffrir ;
\nJe vous d\u00e9fendrais de l\u2019orage :
\nMais vous naissez le plus souvent
\nSur les humides bords des Royaumes du vent.
\nLa Nature envers vous me semble bien injuste.
\nVotre compassion, lui r\u00e9pondit l\u2019Arbuste,
\nPart d\u2019un bon naturel ; mais quittez ce souci.
\nLes vents me sont moins qu\u2019\u00e0 vous redoutables.
\nJe plie, et ne romps pas. Vous avez jusqu\u2019ici
\nContre leurs coups \u00e9pouvantables
\nR\u00e9sist\u00e9 sans courber le dos :
\nMais attendons la fin. Comme il disait ces mots,
\nDu bout de l\u2019horizon accourt avec furie
\nLe plus terrible des enfants
\nQue le Nord e\u00fbt port\u00e9 jusque-l\u00e0 dans ses flancs.
\nL\u2019Arbre tient bon, le Roseau plie ;
\nLe vent redouble ses efforts,
\nEt fait si bien qu\u2019il d\u00e9racine
\nCelui de qui la t\u00eate au Ciel \u00e9tait voisine,
\nEt dont les pieds touchaient \u00e0 l\u2019Empire des Morts.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The oak one day address\u2019d the reed:<\/p>\n

\u2018To you ungenerous indeed<\/p>\n

Has nature been, my humble friend,<\/p>\n

With weakness aye obliged to bend.<\/p>\n

The smallest bird that flits in air<\/p>\n

Is quite too much for you to bear;<\/p>\n

The slightest wind that wreathes the lake<\/p>\n

Your ever-trembling head doth shake.<\/p>\n

The while, my towering form<\/p>\n

Dares with the mountain top<\/p>\n

The solar blaze to stop,<\/p>\n

And wrestle with the storm.<\/p>\n

What seems to you the blast of death,<\/p>\n

To me is but a zephyr\u2019s breath.<\/p>\n

Beneath my branches had you grown,<\/p>\n

That spread far round their friendly bower,<\/p>\n

Less suffering would your life have known,<\/p>\n

Defended from the tempest\u2019s power.<\/p>\n

Unhappily you oftenest show<\/p>\n

In open air your slender form,<\/p>\n

Along the marshes wet and low,<\/p>\n

That fringe the kingdom of the storm.<\/p>\n

To you, declare I must,<\/p>\n

Dame Nature seems unjust.\u2019<\/p>\n

Then modestly replied the reed:<\/p>\n

\u2018Your pity, sir, is kind indeed,<\/p>\n

But wholly needless for my sake.<\/p>\n

The wildest wind that ever blew<\/p>\n

Is safe to me compared with you.<\/p>\n

I bend, indeed, but never break.<\/p>\n

Thus far, I own, the hurricane<\/p>\n

Has beat your sturdy back in vain;<\/p>\n

But wait the end.\u2019 Just at the word,<\/p>\n

The tempest\u2019s hollow voice was heard.<\/p>\n

The North sent forth her fiercest child,<\/p>\n

Dark, jagged, pitiless, and wild.<\/p>\n

The oak, erect, endured the blow;<\/p>\n

The reed bow\u2019d gracefully and low.<\/p>\n

But, gathering up its strength once more,<\/p>\n

In greater fury than before,<\/p>\n

The savage blast<\/p>\n

O\u2019erthrew, at last,<\/p>\n

That proud, old, sky-encircled head,<\/p>\n

Whose feet entwined the empire of the dead!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Le Ch\u00eane et le Roseau (The Oak and the Reed) is one of my favorite fables from the 17th century fabulist Jean de La Fontaine. I clearly remember having to recite it in front of the class when I was in second grade. Unlike the previous fables we explored\u2014Le Corbeau et le Renard (The Crow…<\/p>\n

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