英文
CHAPTER I
IT was about the time of Pentecost or Whitsuntide, that the woods commonly be lusty and gladsome, and the trees clad with leaves and blossoms, and the ground with herbs and flowers sweet smelling, and also the fowls and birds singing melodiously in their harmony, that the Lion, the noble King of all Beasts, would in the holy days of this feast hold an open Court at state; which he did to know over all in his land, and commanded by straight commissions and commandments that every Beast should come thither, in such wise that all the Beasts great and small came to the Court save Reynart the Fox: for he knew himself faulty and guilty in many things against many Beasts that thither should come, that he durst not adventure to go thither. When the King of all Beasts had assembled all his Court, there was none of them all but that he had complained sore on Reynart the Fox.
中文
1
在五旬节的前后，树林中大概都是美丽而且可爱的，树木覆被着叶与花，地上铺着绿草与有香气的花朵，禽鸟们和谐地唱着悦耳的歌；在这个时候，全体禽兽的高贵的王——狮子，要在这次宴会的几个圣日里，坐朝办理国政。他要把这件事叫他国境之内全都知道，又出了告示说，每个禽兽都必须到这里来——于是所有大的小的禽兽都到了宫廷里来，只有列那狐不来，他自己知道他有许多罪恶，得罪过许多到这里来的禽兽，因此，他便不敢到来了。当禽兽之王坐朝，所有禽兽都集合在那里时，只听见许多禽兽在苦苦地控告着列那狐。
