【英】《伊索寓言》第18集：The Farmer and the Snake

Once a farmer’s son was working in a field when he accidentally stepped on a poisonous snake. The snake bit the young man on the leg and the young man died.

In a rage, the farmer vowed he would find the snake and kill it. He hunted for it day and night. When he finally spotted the snake in a field, he tried to chop it in two with his ax. The snake got away, but only after the loss of part of her tail.

The snake missed her beautiful tail very much. So she slithered into the farmer’s barn and bit several cows before she had to rush away to keep from being stomped by the frightened cows’ hooves. The cows she bit died, costing the farmer a great deal of money.

The farmer searched for the snake in the fields beyond the farm. Though he could not find her, he did find her nest. He stomped the snake’s eggs to bits. The snake then snuck into the farmer’s house and bit his wife, killing her.

At this, the farmer stopped. He had lost his wife, his son, and his finest cattle to the snake. He was afraid the next thing he would lose was his life.

The farmer decided to try to make up with the snake. He carried bowls of milk and honey out into the field where the snake had kept her nest.

He called out, “Let us end our fighting. My son should have been more careful. You only struck from instinct. I should not have tried to kill you. Let us put our fight behind us and be friends.”

“Friends?” the snake hissed. “Take your gifts. I will never forget my tail or my eggs. You will never forget your family or your wealth. We will not be friends.”

The farmer walked away, but he kept a sharp eye on the snake as he left. He had discovered that once begun, a war is not an easy thing to stop.