Le Renard ayant la Queue coupée Bilingue Français/Anglais

Le Renard ayant la Queue coupée

Un vieux renard, mais des plus fins,
Grand croqueur de poulets, grand preneur de lapins,
Sentant son renard d’une lieue,
Fut enfin au piége attrapé.
Par grand hasard en étant échappé,
Non pas franc, car pour gage il y laissa sa queue;
S’étant, dis-je, sauvé sans queue et tout honteux,
Pour avoir des pareils (comme il étoit habile),
Un jour que les renards tenoient conseil entre eux:
Que faisons-nous, dit-il, de ce poids inutile,
Et qui va balayant tous les sentiers fangeux?
Que nous sert cette queue? Il faut qu’on se la coupe:
Si l’on me croit, chacun s’y résoudra.—
Votre avis est fort bon, dit quelqu’un de la troupe;
Mais tournez-vous, de grâce, et l’on vous répondra.
A ces mots il se fit une telle huée,
Que le pauvre écourté ne put être entendu.
Prétendre ôter la queue eût été temps perdu:
La mode en fut continuée.

The Fox With His Tail Cut Off

A cunning old fox, of plundering habits,
Great crauncher of fowls, great catcher of rabbits,
Whom none of his sort had caught in a nap,
Was finally caught in somebody’s trap.
By luck he escaped, not wholly and hale,
For the price of his luck was the loss of his tail.
Escaped in this way, to save his disgrace,
He thought to get others in similar case.
One day that the foxes in council were met,
‘Why wear we,’ said he, ‘this cumbering weight,
Which sweeps in the dirt wherever it goes?
Pray tell me its use, if any one knows.
If the council will take my advice,
We shall dock off our tails in a trice.’
‘Your advice may be good,’ said one on the ground;
‘But, ere I reply, pray turn yourself round.’
Whereat such a shout from the council was heard,
Poor bob-tail, confounded, could say not a word.
To urge the reform would have wasted his breath.
Long tails were the mode till the day of his death.