The Eagle and the Arrow

AN EAGLE sat on a lofty rock, watching the movements of a Hare whom he sought to make his prey. An archer, who saw the Eagle from a place of concealment, took an accurate aim and wounded him mortally. The Eagle gave one look at the arrow that had entered his heart and saw in that single glance that its feathers had been furnished by himself. “It is a double grief to me,” he exclaimed, “that I should perish by an arrow feathered from my own wings.”

ワシが高い岩の上にとまり、獲物にしようとねらっていた野ウサギの動きを見張っていた。物かげからワシを見つけた弓の射手が、ねらいすまして矢を放ち、ワシに致命傷を負わせた。ワシは心臓にささった矢をひと目見て、その一瞬で、矢羽が自分の羽でできていることに気づいた。「自分の翼の羽をつけた矢で死ぬとは、二重の悲しみだ」とワシは叫んだ。