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Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus

Book I - XXIX. Asinus Inridens Aprum (Perry 484)

Plerumque stulti, risum dum captant levem,
gravi destringunt alios contumelia,
et sibi nocivum concitant periculum.
Asellus apro cum fuisset obvius,
'Salve' inquit 'frater'. Ille indignans repudiat
officium, et quaerit cur sic mentiri velit?
Asinus demisso pene 'Similem si negas
tibi me esse, certe simile est hoc rostro tuo'.
Aper, cum vellet facere generosum impetum,
repressit iram et 'Facilis vindicta est mihi:
sed inquinari nolo ignavo sanguine'.

[not translated by Christopher Smart]

Latin text from Phaedrus at The Latin Library (Ad Fontes), English translations from The Fables of Phaedrus Translated into English Verse by Christopher Smart (London: 1913). Ben Perry, Babrius and Phaedrus (Loeb), contains the Latin texts of Phaedrus, with a facing English translation, along with a valuable appendix listing all the Aesop's fables attested in Greek and/or in Latin. Invaluable.