But who’s the one to bell the cat? - Eustache Deschamps

Among the mice, so runs the tale,
a brilliant convocation sat
against their enemy the cat
to see if they could formulate
some means by which they could prevail
without getting lost in endless chat.
One asked, in the course of the debate,
“But who’s the one to bell the cat?”

A motion was adopted; then
they were parting from each other when
a lady mouse from the low lands met
them all and asked what did they get
accomplished. They responded they
will conquer their enemies today:
they’ll bell their necks; that will be that.
“But who’s the one to bell the cat?”

‘That’s the hardest part,” said an old grey rat.
The lady asked, and wisely too,
“Who’ll do this deed of derring-do?”
Now each of them proceeds to secede:
there wasn’t one who’d do the deed
so in the end the plan fell through.
They were fine words, but only that:
“But who’s the one to bell the cat?”

Envoy
Prince, advice is often tossed about
but we can comment, like the rat,
on counsels which won’t be carried out:
“But who’s the one to bell the cat?”

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Eustache Deschamps (1338 - 1406) France
Translated by David Curzon and Jeffrey Fiskin
Source: Eustache Deschamps Selected Poems, Edited by Ian S.Laurie and Deborah M.Sinnreich-Levi, Routledge, 2003