Monday, December 21, 2009

Jean de La Fontaine: The Ant and the Cricket


The Ant and the Cricket

The careless cricket
Sang the summer away
Just to find herself
Poor and with nothing to eat
No fly, no bread
In the winter to have.

Hungry and whining
To the ant she went
Begging for something to have
Just out of kind heart
As to be able to eat
Till the good season comes:
Swearing by her faith
Next August she would refund
With interests and capital sum.

The frugal ant, who double thinks
Before anything she lends
-“How did you spend your summer away?”
Thus asks straight out.
And the cricket:-“My dear friend,
I did nothing but sang day and night”-
“Well done, my dear friend,
Now you can also dance”

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