Fables (La Fontaine, tr. Wright)/The Two Bulls and the Frog

by Jean de La Fontaine

Two bulls engaged in shocking battle,

Both for a certain heifer's sake,

And lordship over certain cattle.

A frog began to groan and quake.

'But what is this to you?'

Inquired another of the croaking crew.

'Why, sister, don't you see,

The end of this will be

That one of these big brutes will yield,

And then be exiled from the field?

No more permitted on the grass to feed,

He'll forage through our march, on rush and reed;

And while he eats or chews the cud,

Will trample on us in the mud.

Alas! to think how frogs must suffer

by means of this proud lady heifer!'

This fear was not without good sense.

One bull was beat, and much to their expense;

For, quick treating to their reedy bower,

He trod on twenty of them in an hour.

Of little folks it oft has been the fate

To suffer for the follies of the great.