The Lion and the Gnat

Translated by Emery L. Campbell

"Begone! you petty pest, you less than penny's worth!"

The lion used such words as these;

a fiendish midge had plagued his ease.

At that the gnat declared scorched earth.
"Do you suppose," he asks the beast, "your regal rank

can frighten me, can make me crawl?

An ox could best you, to be frank,

yet I can drive him to the wall."

The gnat has hardly voiced these facts,

while circling to survey his meal,

when, trumpet blaring, he attacks.

At first he takes his time to wheel,

then falls upon the lion's neck;

this makes the king a nervous wreck.
The lion foams and rages, lightning in his eyes.
He bellows; other creatures tremble, run, and hide.

And this distress, these outraged cries,

all rise from tricks a gnat has tried.
The puny gnat torments the king in every wise.
At times he bites his back, and then he pricks his snout;

he buzzes up his nose, then out.
The lion's astronomic rage inspires awe.
Unseen, the demon triumphs, and he laughs to view
the maddened beast who's sparing neither tooth nor claw
in wild contortions, even shedding blood as, through
his anguish, he does grievous damage to his skin.
He whips his tail with frantic force against his flanks
and beats the blameless air. His fury does him in
at last, fatigues him, brings him down; he's shooting blanks.
The bully bug pulls back with glory written large
and trumpets triumph much as he'd proclaimed the charge.
He flits about and cries, "I won!" but on the way

he's tangled in a spider's snare;

once victor, now he too is prey.
What useful lesson can we learn from this affair?
I'll name you two: the first is that among our foes
the ones that we must fear the most are often those
of smallest size. The other: whom great peril spares

can die from tumbling down the stairs.

Translation © 2003 Emery L. Campbell
Translated from the French: "Le lion et le moucheron" by Jean de La Fontaine, 1621-1695