The Wolf and the Lamb.

The Wolf and the Lamb
(Fables, I, 10)

   La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleur.
   The strongest reasons are the reasons of the strong.
   It's so--as we'll show before long.

   A lamb was drinking quietly
   Close to the edge of a clear brook
   Which was on the path the wolf, when fasting, took.
   The wolf eyes the lamb hungrily.
   "Who's made you so brave you muddy my drink?" he cried,
   Cross as two sticks, fit to be tied.
   "Such arrogance must be punished,
   don't you agree?"
   "Sire," said the lamb, "
   may it please your High Majesty
   To be unenraged--and to note
   That where I stand and wet my throat
   Is--as you, Sire, may see is true--
   Downstream from you,
   Downstream by twenty yards at least,
   Proof I can't possibly muddy your royal drink
   From my low stance here at the brink."
   "Wretch! You DO muddy it--and,"
   said the cruel beast, "What's worse,
   you told lots of lies about me last year."
   "Not I! This year's my first; last year I wasn't here,"
   Said the lamb. "I'm still nursing my mother."
   "Not you? Then it was your brother!"
   "I have none."
   "Then one of your kin.
   You owe me, one way or the other,
   You, your shepherd, your dogs, their kin--
   I must take revenge. Your crimes are known."
   Wolf dragged lamb under the trees
   And cracked and ate him, blood and bone,
   With no further formalities.

translated by Marie Ponsot