French–English parallel text
Le Vieillard et ses Enfants
The Bundle of Sticks
Aesop
A free bilingual English–French edition: the French translation with the English original beside it, paragraph by paragraph. Read it online, or download it as a dual-language ebook.
Opening the reader…
Un certain père avait une famille de fils qui se querellaient sans cesse entre eux.
A certain Father had a family of Sons, who were forever quarreling among themselves.
Aucun mot qu’il pouvait dire ne servait à rien, alors il chercha dans son esprit un exemple très frappant qui leur ferait comprendre que la discorde les mènerait au malheur.
No words he could say did the least good, so he cast about in his mind for some very striking example that should make them see that discord would lead them to misfortune.
Un jour, alors que la querelle avait été beaucoup plus violente que d’habitude et que chacun des fils boudait d’un air maussade, il demanda à l’un d’eux de lui apporter un faisceau de baguettes.
One day when the quarreling had been much more violent than usual and each of the Sons was moping in a surly manner, he asked one of them to bring him a bundle of sticks.
Puis, tendant le faisceau à chacun de ses fils à tour de rôle, il leur dit d’essayer de le briser. Mais bien que chacun ait fait de son mieux, aucun n’y parvint.
Then handing the bundle to each of his Sons in turn he told them to try to break it. But although each one tried his best, none was able to do so.
Le père défit alors le faisceau et donna les baguettes à ses fils pour qu’ils les brisent une par une. Ce qu’ils firent très facilement.
The Father then untied the bundle and gave the sticks to his Sons to break one by one. This they did very easily.
« Mes fils, dit le père, ne voyez-vous pas à quel point il est certain que si vous vous entendez et vous entraidez, il sera impossible à vos ennemis de vous nuire ?
“My Sons,” said the Father, “do you not see how certain it is that if you agree with each other and help each other, it will be impossible for your enemies to injure you?
Mais si vous êtes divisés entre vous, vous ne serez pas plus forts qu’une seule baguette de ce faisceau. »
But if you are divided among yourselves, you will be no stronger than a single stick in that bundle.”
L’union fait la force.
In unity is strength.
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