THE ROSE AND THE AMARANTH

Perry's Index to the Aesopica

Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:

THE ROSE AND THE AMARANTH

An amaranth plant, whose flower never fades, had sprung up next to a rosebush. The amaranth said, 'What a delightful flower you are! You are desired by the gods and mortals alike. I congratulate you on your beauty and your fragrance.' The rose said, 'O amaranth, everlasting flower, I live for only a brief time and even if no one plucks me, I die, while you are able to blossom and bloom with eternal youth!'
This fable shows that it is better to last for a long time while being contented with little than to live sumptuously for a short time and then suffer a reversal of fortune, perhaps even death.

Source: Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.

Perry 369: Gibbs (Oxford) 204 [English]
Perry 369: Townsend 311 [English]
Perry 369: Chambry 323 [Greek]

You can find a compilation of Perry's index to the Aesopica in the gigantic appendix to his edition of Babrius and Phaedrus for the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1965). This book is an absolute must for anyone interested in the Aesopic fable tradition. Invaluable.