| Fable III. | FABLE III. |
| THE VAIN JACKDAW AND THE PEACOCK. | LE GEAI ORGUEILLEUX ET LE PAON. |
| Phaedrus. | Phèdre. |
| That one ought not to plume oneself on the merits which belong to another, but ought rather to pass his life in his own proper guise, Æsop has given us this illustration:— | Ne vous glorifiez pas des avantages d’autrui, mais vivez plutôt content de votre état, d’après cet exemple qu’Ésope nous a laissé. |
| A Jackdaw, swelling with empty pride, picked up some feathers which had fallen from a Peacock, and decked himself out therewith; | Enflé d’un vain orgueil, un Geai ramassa les plumes d’un Paon, et s’en fit une parure ; |
| upon which, despising his own kind, he mingled with a beauteous flock of Peacocks. | puis, méprisant ses pareils, il va se mêler à une troupe de superbes Paons : |
| They tore his feathers from off the impudent bird, and put him to flight with their beaks. | mais ils arrachent le plumage à l’oiseau imprudent, et le chassent à coups de bec. |
| The Jackdaw, thus roughly handled, in grief hastened to return to his own kind; | Tout maltraité, le Geai revenait tout confus vers les oiseaux de son espèce : |
| repulsed by whom, he had to submit to sad disgrace. | repoussé par eux, il eut encore à supporter cette honte. |
| Then said one of those whom he had formerly despised: | Un de ceux qu’il avait autrefois regardés avec mépris, lui dit alors : |
| “If you had been content with our station, and had been ready to put up with what nature had given, you would neither have experienced the former affront, nor would your ill fortune have had to feel the additional pang of this repulse.” | « Si tu avais su vivre parmi nous, et te contenter de ce que t’avait donné la nature, tu n’aurais pas d’abord essuyé un affront, et, dans ton malheur, tu ne te verrais point chassé par nous. » |
