Prevod

(He who resorts to unjust means to discredit another often discredits himself.) There was once a Canary who, having taken great pains to improve his singing, succeeded in delighting a number of music lovers and began to win applause. A foreign Nightingale of established reputation praised him warmly, encouraging him with his approval.

The standing the Canary gained, both through this favorable judgment and through the study he undertook to make himself worthy of it, aroused the envy of certain birds. Some of these also sang, well or ill, and persecuted him for that very reason. Others did not sing at all, and hated him on that account. At last a Rook, unable to distinguish himself by his own merits, sought fame by publicly railing against the Canary among the birds. He could not say what was faulty in the Canary’s singing, but thought it enough to discredit him by ridiculing the color of his feathers, the land of his birth, and so forth, accusing him without proof of things that had nothing to do with whether his singing was good or bad. A few ill-intentioned birds approved of what the Rook said and took up his cry.

The Rook set about proving to everyone that the bird they had hitherto regarded as a skillful Canary was nothing but a little donkey, and that what had passed for true music was in fact one long bray. “How extraordinary!” some said. “The Canary brays; the Canary is a donkey.” Word of this strange new marvel spread among the animals, who came to see how a Canary had turned into an ass. The Canary, weary of it all, no longer wished to sing, until the Eagle, queen of the birds, ordered him to do so, to discover whether he really brayed or not; for if he did indeed bray, she wished to exclude him from the ranks of her feathered subjects. The Canary opened his beak and sang to the delight of most of those present. Then the Eagle, indignant at the Rook’s slander, begged her lord, the god Jupiter, to punish him. The god granted her request and told the Eagle to order the Rook to sing. But when he tried to raise his voice, by divine decree he began to bray hideously. All the animals laughed and said: Justly has he turned into an ass who tried to make an ass of the Canary.