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Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus

Appendix XXXI. Papilio et uespa (Perry 556)

Non praeteritam sed praesentem aspiciendam esse fortunam

Papilio uespam prope uolantem uiderat:
"O sortem iniquam! Dum uiuebant corpora,
quorum ex reliquiis animam nos accepimus,
ego eloquens in pace, fortis proeliis,
arte omni princeps inter aequalis fui;
en cuncta leuitas putris et uolito cinis.
Tu, qui fuisti mulus clitellarius,
quemcumque uisum est laedis infixo aculeo."
At uespa dignam memoria uocem edidit:
"Non qui fuerimus, sed qui nunc simus, uide."

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.