the sun and the wind

Aesop's fable

Verse version by Ruth Salles translated from narration by Johann Gottfried Harder

The Sun and the Wind bet
which of the two was stronger
and which of the two removed
a traveler's cloak.

First the Wind blew,
but it was in vain that it blew,
for the man, cold,
but his cloak closed.

Then the shining sun,
its sweet rays casting,
came to warm up slowly
the man who was passing by;

which, at a given moment,
stripped off his coat,
revealing to the Sun and the Wind
which of the two was stronger

original prose version

One day, the north wind argued with the sun over which of them would be the strongest. Neither, in their long struggle, wanted to recognize the superiority of the other. So they decided to put each one's power to the test.

The first one who managed to remove a traveler's cloak would be the winner. The north wind began to blow furiously, accompanied by heavy showers, but instead of taking off the traveler's cloak, it made him take more and more shelter, and the more it blew, the more he wrapped himself up.

Then it was time for the sun to give its evidence. It immediately began to focus its rays on the poor man's head with such ardor that it forced him to take off his cloak and sit in the shade of a tree, perspiring and sunny. It was the sun then the victor.

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