C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Death and the Woodcutter
By Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695)
A
Under the fagot’s weight and his own age
Groaning and bent, ending his weary stage,
Was struggling homeward to his smoky hut.
At last, worn out with labor and with pain,
Letting his fagot down, he thinks again
What little pleasure he has had in life.
Is there so cursed a wretch in all the strife?
No bread sometimes, and never any rest;
With taxes, soldiers, children, and a wife,
Creditors, forced toil oppressed,
He is the picture of a man unblessed.
And asks why he was called upon.
“Help me,” the poor man says, “I pray,
To lift this wood, then I’ll begone.”
But who called him? Not I!
The motto of mankind still goes:
We’ll suffer all, sooner than die.