Deux fables : Le Corbeau et le Renard, La Cigale et la Fourmi Two Fables: The Crow and the Fox / The Grasshopper and the Ant

Jean de La Fontaine écrit des fables : des histoires courtes avec des animaux qui parlent, avec une leçon de vie à la fin.

In the 17th century, French writer Jean de La Fontaine invents the fable as a literary form: short stories featuring talking animals that behave like humans, each ending in a moral lesson about human weaknesses and virtues, still read by French children today.

Un corbeau a un fromage dans son bec. Un renard, en bas, complimente ses belles plumes et sa belle voix pour l'entendre chanter.

A crow perches with a piece of cheese in its beak. A fox below smells the cheese and begins flattering the crow, praising its feathers and suggesting that if its voice matches its beautiful plumage, it must be the finest singer in the forest.

Le corbeau ouvre son bec pour chanter, et le fromage tombe. Le renard le mange et explique que les flatteurs profitent de ceux qui les écoutent.

Wanting to prove its lovely voice, the crow opens its beak to sing, and the cheese falls to the ground. The fox seizes it and eats it, then tells the crow that flatterers live off those foolish enough to listen to them, a lesson worth the lost cheese.

Une cigale chante tout l'été sans travailler, pendant qu'une fourmi travaille dur pour stocker de la nourriture.

While the sun shines through the long, warm days, a grasshopper spends all its time singing carefree, while nearby an ant works tirelessly, gathering and storing food for later, undeterred by the grasshopper's teasing.

L'hiver arrive et la cigale n'a plus de nourriture. Elle va demander de l'aide à la fourmi, qui lui demande ce qu'elle faisait pendant l'été.

Winter comes, food grows scarce, and the starving grasshopper goes to beg her neighbour the ant for grain, promising to repay her with interest before next August. The ant simply asks what the grasshopper was doing all summer instead of working.

La cigale dit qu'elle chantait tout l'été. La fourmi répond sèchement : alors maintenant, danse, et elle ne l'aide pas.

The grasshopper admits she spent the summer singing for anyone who would listen. The ant, unmoved, replies coldly that she should go and dance now, and refuses to lend her any food, a deliberately harsh ending about foresight and consequences.