The Two Parrots, the King, and his Son

Two parrots lived, a sire and son, / On roastings from a royal fire. / Two demigods, a son and sire, / These parrots pension'd for their fun. / Time tied the knot of love sincere: / The sires grew to each other dear; / The sons, in spite of their frivolity, / Grew comrades boon, in joke and jollity; / At mess they mated, hot or cool; / Were fellow-scholars at a school. / Which did the bird no little honour, since / The boy, by king begotten, was a prince. / By nature fond of birds, the prince, too, petted / A sparrow, which delightfully coquetted. / These rivals, both of unripe feather, / One day were frolicking together: / As oft befalls such little folks, / A quarrel follow'd from their jokes. / The sparrow, quite uncircumspect, / Was by the parrot sadly peck'd; / With drooping wing and bloody head, / His master pick'd him up for dead, / And, being quite too wroth to bear it, / In heat of passion kill'd his parrot. / When this sad piece of news he heard, / Distracted was the parent bird. / His piercing cries bespoke his pain; / But cries and tears were all in vain. / The talking bird had left the shore; [1] / In short, he, talking now no more, / Caused such a rage to seize his sire, / That, lighting on the prince in ire, / He put out both his eyes, / And fled for safety as was wise. / The bird a pine for refuge chose, / And to its lofty summit rose; / There, in the bosom of the skies, / Enjoy'd his vengeance sweet, / And scorn'd the wrath beneath his feet. / Out ran the king, and cried, in soothing tone, / 'Return, dear friend; what serves it to bemoan? / Hate, vengeance, mourning, let us both omit. / For me, it is no more than fit / To own, though with an aching heart, / The wrong is wholly on our part. / Th' aggressor truly was my son -- / My son? no; but by Fate the deed was done. / Ere birth of Time, stern Destiny / Had written down the sad decree, / That by this sad calamity / Your child should cease to live, and mine to see.

[1]: _The talking bird_, &c. -- "Stygia natabat jam frigida cymba. " -- VIRG. -- Translator.