A cuniglia e ra duonnula - The Rabbit and the Weasel

It was already close to the last week
When a pregnant she-rabbit
Dug herself a lair along a creek
in order to give birth.
She made it so shiny it seemed silvery
and at the bottom, with the hair
pulled from her breast, thread by thread,
she prepared a bed
Soft as the softest cotton finery,
Skillfully made to stimulate delivery.

And as soon as she began to feel the pangs
She went out for a midwife; but when
she returned at last, found that in the den
a shameless, brazen-faced weasel
had made himself at ease.
) Ehi! ) she said ) If I may,
what do you think you're doing here?
You'd better be on your way
because this here's my lair!
) Has someone left it to you?
) No one, but with these hands
I have had a lot to do,
I dug it and I fixed it
Do you see all those strands
of the softest, softest hair
scattered in the lair?
That's hair from my own breast!
) And what is that to me?
A lair without a door,
and unoccupied, moreover,
is for anyone to discover.
When you went out, it really is too bad,
you did not close it, or only thought you had!
As for those few threads of hair,
go ahead and take them, if you really care!
) Listen to this cockamamie story!
Maybe now I should be saying I'm sorry!
A poor rabbit
builds her lair so she can have her litter,
And here comes this hairsplitter,
and with the excuse that the door wasn't closed,
barges in and suddenly I'm foreclosed!
Look, you'd better go now,
or I'll make you sorry, and how!
) The law protects me... ) What law?
) According to the old one,
Called the Pica Law,
effective long ago,
You would be in the right;
According to the present one,
I am very sorry for your ladyship
But I'm the one who's right.
And you should try to be less impolite,
I'll slap you with a lawsuit otherwise
And then you can deliver in a cellhouse. )
So the poor she-rabbit lost her lease,
And if she wants to have her brood in peace,
Has no choice but to go dig another den
In a faraway glen.
(Translated by Luigi Bonaffini)