Lamb and the wolf

Ad rivum eundem lupus et agnus venerant,

A wolf and a lamb had come to the same stream,

siti compulsi: superior stabat lupus

driven by thirst; the wolf was standing higher up,

longeque inferior agnus; tunc fauce improba

and the lamb far lower down; then, driven by his wicked appetite,

latro incitatus iurgii causam intulit.

The robber introduced a cause for quarrel.

'Cur' inquit 'turbulentam fecisti mihi

"Why," he said, "have you made the water turbulent

aquam bibenti?' Laniger contra timens:

for me while I am drinking?" The wool bearer replied fearfully:

'Qui possum, quaeso, facere, quod quereris, lupe?

" How can I do what you complain of, wolf?

A te decurrit ad meos haustus liquor.'

The water flows down from you to where I drink."

Repulsus ille veritatis viribus,

He, refuted by the force of truth, the wolf

'Ante hos sex mensis male' ait 'dixisti mihi.'

said, "Six months ago you insulted me."

Respondit agnus: 'Equidem natus non eram.

The lamb replied: "But actually, I had not yet been born."

'Pater hercle tuus' ille inquit 'male dixit mihi.'

"By Hercules, your father," he said, "insulted me."

Atque ita correptum lacerat iniusta nece.

And so, having seized him, he tears him to pieces with an unjust killing.

Haec propter illos scripta est homines fabula,

This fable was written about those people

qui fictis causis innocentis opprimunt.

who oppress the innocent with fabricated pretexts.