Babrius (8)

Here are some more fables by Babrius, translated into English verse by James Davies: The Fables of Babrius, and you can click here for all the Babrius fables at this blog.

The Wolf and the Lamb

A wolf beheld a lambkin once astray,

And did not give brute force at once its way,

But, bent to seize it, found this specious plea:

"Small though you were last year, you slander'd me."

"Nay! How last year? A year I've not been born."

"Well, then, you nibbled my own field of corn!"

"I eat nor grass nor corn! A nursling still!"

"Have you not drunk then of my private rill?"

"As yet, my mother's milk's my beverage."

Upsprang the wolf, and ate the lamb in rage.

" A wolf," said he, "can't for his supper wait,

Though all his pleas you may invalidate."

illustration by Bennett

The Boy Eating the Entrails

What time with vineboughs men the broad-floor strew,

A bull to Ceres once the rustics slew.

Tables of meat and casks of wine were there;

But one poor lad had gorged too large a share

Of the bull's entrails. Swoln he homeward hies,

And sore bewails his stomach's weight and size.

Once in his mother's arms, "Alas!" cried he.

"What is't?" she said. "Oh, all is o'er with me!

My wretched fate is present death, no doubt;

For, mother, see, my bowels gushing out."

"Don't try to keep it down!" the dame replied;

"'Tis not your own, dear, but the bull's, inside!"

So when an orphan's substance guardians spend,

And retribution comes to faithless friend,

To such, deep-groaning at disgorging hour,

Methinks this fable one might quote with power.

The Swollen Fox

An aged oak was at its roots decay'd,

Wherein the wallet of a hind was laid,

Ragged and brimful of stale bread and meat;

A fox ran in, and its contents did eat.

Her stomach thence, no marvel, wax'd so stout,

That through the opening she could not get out.

She wept. Another fox, that came that way,

Said jeeringly, "Till you are fasting, stay!

You won't find egress, till you grow as thin

"In stomach, as you were when you got in."

illustration by Praeger

The Dolphins and the Crab

'Twixt whales and dolphins there was difference great,

And to them came a crab to mediate.

Just as, in states, if one of small renown

Should act peacemaker for each rival crown.

The Sick Stag

A stag, whose lissome joints grew stiff, had made

A grassy couch outside a woodland shade.

Hence ample fodder to his need he found.

Till soon, to see their neighbour, gathered round

Whole tribes of beasts (a right good neighbour he!)

Each came, and each with his supplies made free

By thoughtless nibbling, ere it sought the wood.

Thus sank, not by disease, but want of food,

A stag that scarce had yet two crow-lives told:

Had he lack'd friends, he haply had died old!

illustration by Grandville