Le Corbeau et le Renard in full, in French with an English translation, the "if" that lets the fox never quite lie, and why it is the thief who delivers the moral.
Read the fable
The title in italics, the fabulist's name under a fine rule, then the eighteen lines in one block, as in the collection, and at the foot the line "Fables, Livre I, 1668". Printed on thick matte eco-friendly paper.
Printed and shipped from a studio near you: most orders arrive in 5 business days.
Maître Corbeau, sur un arbre perché,Tenait en son bec un fromage.Maître Renard, par l'odeur alléché,Lui tint à peu près ce langage :« Hé ! bonjour, Monsieur du Corbeau.Que vous êtes joli ! que vous me semblez beau !Sans mentir, si votre ramageSe rapporte à votre plumage,Vous êtes le Phénix des hôtes de ces bois. »À ces mots le Corbeau ne se sent pas de joie ;Et pour montrer sa belle voix,Il ouvre un large bec, laisse tomber sa proie.Le Renard s'en saisit, et dit : « Mon bon Monsieur,Apprenez que tout flatteurVit aux dépens de celui qui l'écoute :Cette leçon vaut bien un fromage, sans doute. »Le Corbeau, honteux et confus,Jura, mais un peu tard, qu'on ne l'y prendrait plus.
Master Crow, perched on a tree, held a cheese in his beak. Master Fox, drawn by the smell, spoke to him more or less thus: "Well, hello there, Sir Crow. How handsome you are! how fine you look to me! Truly, if your song matches your plumage, you are the Phoenix of all the dwellers of these woods."
At these words the Crow is beside himself with joy; and to show off his fine voice, he opens a wide beak and lets his prize fall. The Fox seizes it and says: "My good sir, learn that every flatterer lives at the expense of the one who listens to him: this lesson is well worth a cheese, no doubt." The Crow, ashamed and confused, swore, though a little late, that he would not be caught again.
A plain prose translation, offered as a reading aid. The print carries the French original.
From a long way back. Aesop already tells of a crow holding a piece of meat and losing it for wanting to sing; the Latin fabulist Phaedrus takes it up. La Fontaine makes it the second fable of his first book, right after La Cigale et la Fourmi. He changes neither the bird nor the trick: he changes the tone, and replaces the meat with a cheese.
One word often stops readers: the Phoenix. It is the unique bird of legend, reborn from its ashes, of which only one exists in the world. Telling the crow he is "le Phénix des hôtes de ces bois", the Phoenix of all the dwellers of these woods, is telling him that no bird in the forest is his equal. The fox never flatters by halves.
Nearly a century later, Rousseau takes it as an example of what should not be given to children. He dissects it line by line, "Maître! what does that word mean?", and concludes that the pupil will learn the wrong lesson: "children make fun of the crow, but they all grow fond of the fox." Which mostly proves that the fox is irresistible.
Not quite, and that is the finesse of the text. The fox never says the crow sings well. He says: "si votre ramage se rapporte à votre plumage", if your song matches your plumage. Everything lies in that "if". He sets a condition, lets the crow fulfill it all by himself, and so will have stated nothing false. Effective flattery does not lie: it suggests, and lets the other take care of the rest.
Eighteen lines in a single sweep, with no stanza breaks, of mixed lengths: alexandrines, ten-syllable and eight-syllable lines. One narrator, two speeches, and a moral spoken by a character rather than by the poet.
"Maître Corbeau, sur un arbre perché, tenait en son bec un fromage."
Master Crow, perched on a tree, held a cheese in his beak.
A place, a character, a coveted object. The title "Maître", given to both animals, is already ironic: it is the title of lawyers and notaries. Two counsels are about to plead, and one of them will not say a word.
"Sans mentir, si votre ramage se rapporte à votre plumage."
Truly, if your song matches your plumage.
"Sans mentir", without a lie: the fox says so himself, and it is literally true. He promises nothing, he raises hopes. The crow hears only the end of the sentence and opens his beak.
"Cette leçon vaut bien un fromage, sans doute."
This lesson is well worth a cheese, no doubt.
The lesson is not spoken by the poet but by the fox, his mouth full, who charges for it with what he has just stolen. The last word goes to the crow, ashamed, who swears "un peu tard", a little late.
Because it reads in one block, from the perch to the fall, without a pause. In 50x70 cm (20x28 in), the long and short lines draw the rhythm of the scene on the page: the fox's speech stretches out, the crow's answer is a single gesture.
In a study, an entryway or a child's room, it is the most recited fable in the French language, and a lesson you never tire of rereading as you walk past.
To read further: La Cigale et la Fourmi, the fable that opens the collection, this one with no written moral at all, and L'Albatros by Baudelaire, another bird made fun of.
With Burning Blue, an exclusive studio creation: on an electric blue ground, a dark speckled silhouette sits perched on a red branch, above the void. It is not a crow, and yet the resemblance is amusing: you wait for it to open its beak.
Side by side, the fable on one side and the silhouette on the other, the two prints stage the same face-off. The bright blue gives the wall the energy of a theater; the cream paper keeps the text calm.
In 30x40 or 50x70 cm (12x16 or 20x28 in).
Le Corbeau et le Renard (The Crow and the Fox) is the second fable of Book I of Jean de La Fontaine's Fables, published in 1668 and dedicated to the Dauphin. It comes right after La Cigale et la Fourmi.
It is written into the text: "Apprenez que tout flatteur vit aux dépens de celui qui l'écoute", learn that every flatterer lives at the expense of the one who listens to him. Its particularity is that the fox himself speaks it, right after making off with the cheese, not the poet.
Not exactly. The fox says "if your song matches your plumage": he sets a condition instead of making a claim, and lets the crow fulfill it himself. So he has said nothing false.
The Phoenix is the unique bird of legend, reborn from its ashes. Telling the crow he is the Phoenix of the dwellers of these woods is telling him that no bird in the forest is his equal.
In Emile, in 1762, he comments on the fable line by line and judges that it teaches children the opposite of what we think: "children make fun of the crow, but they all grow fond of the fox."
Yes: Heure d'été sets the whole fable, in the original French, as an art print, in 30x40, 40x50 or 50x70 cm (12x16, 16x20 or 20x28 in), on thick matte eco-friendly paper.
Le Corbeau et le Renard is the fable every French reader knows by heart, and it still works because it judges no one. If it is one of yours, give it a place where you can see it every day.
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