colleague S, with whom I'm currently doing a project involving Italian, lent me this book so that I could improve my shaky grasp of her language.
I was pleased to find that I could understand quite a lot of it! The high point was discovering an Aesop's Fable that I hadn't previously come across:
The Frogs and the Well
Some frogs lived happily in a puddle.
Then summer arrived as one hot day succeeded another, the puddle shrank until it disappeared altogether, The frogs had no choice but to seek a new home, They hopped painfully along, but everywhere they went they found driedup ponds and empty river beds, Finally they came to a well, Looking down the deep shaft, they saw water at the bottom,
"We're saved!" croaked one frog, "Let's jump in now!"
"Wait a moment," said his less impulsive friend, "What will we do if this one also dries up"
I must admit that at this time some of these tales fell flat amp are as antiquarian as.
. . Carriages Shepherds
But still, some of them are cynical enough to strike my fancy, and most of them end with a little innocent critter dying and learning a mistake way too lateall so that we can benefit.
There is misogyny, racism, classism, . . the works. Its deletion of this from the "Books" List doesn't affect me or you, really,
My favorites include the one about the bat who denies his classification of "rat" when captured by a hound and of "bird" when caught by a cat escaping twice with his life HeyI must admit that travelling in Europe as a Mexican has many more perks like others' attitude and treatment of you than travelling as an American.
Like Also, the stupid girl who dreams while a pail of water atop her head tumbles, ruining those aforementioned fantasies silly, stupid girl! is likewise a winner.
However, it is not but the story of rabid rage amp ire, about the bee stinging the cobra's hood who then crushes both the bee amp its own head under the wheel of a wagon to get her revenge no matter the price that really made me grin.
That one's absolutely Shakespearean! Love all the stories, Reading them to my kids and then asking them the morals as they see it, I know they don't understand it all but I hope it plants a seed in them to be kinder, empathetic people and not letting others abuse this kindness.
Lots of witty and self evaluation stories told in animal form, Short and sweet with lots of wisdom and mental strength, Once upon a time, long ago and far away, all things and beings were not only conscious, but also able to communicate in the same language, an earthenware pot could talk to a bronze kettle, the fresh rivers to the salty sea, animals on two or four legs, hairy or feathered nattered and prattled together.
This is the world of Aesop, Key to it is that mutual understanding does not arise from the fact that all things can understand each other, no, that point is just where the fun begins.
And above all these stories are fun although they are not always nice, indeed some are distinctly nasty,
Legend or fable has it that Aesop was a slave, his fables a way of subtly showing his opinion in such a way that he might be able to avoid a beating.
Or as one of the stories has it once the North Wind and the Sun were discussing which of them could make a traveller take off his coat the fastest.
The North wind blew fiercely so the garment flapped about the man but he hugged it even tighter about him, Then the sun shone down upon him and in the warmth the man very quickly took off his coat.
However, the legend goes on, such stories were not obscure enough as he ended up being put to death by the enraged people of Delphi.
Two men went on a journey to the land of the monkeys, one always told the truth, and one always told lies, the moral of this story is that in the land of the monkeys don't tell the truth if you value your life and this story is good for all people who work in organisations.
. . one man returns. Having got back he loads up his camel with containers full of grapes, 'Now', he said to the camel, 'do you want to take the difficult uphill route or the steep and dangerous downhill route to the market' 'So what happened to the easy, comfortable level route' asked the camel.
As they were walking along, a fox saw the grapes and ran alongside the camel pausing to jump up to try to grab a mouth full of grapes, after falling on its back a few times the fox
got up, shook itself and said 'bah, those grapes are probably sour anyway'.
The fox ran back to the lion, The lion was dying and he asked the fox to bring him the deer, because he would dearly love to eat the deer before dying.
The fox ran off to the deer, the fox said 'thank goodness I have found you in time, the Lion is dying and has decided that you will be the next king of the beasts, and he wishes to invest you with the kingship as quickly as possible.
' They hurry to the lion who leaps at the deer swiping its ear with his paw the deer instantly speeds off.
'I still want to eat that deer' said the lion, 'hmm, this might be tough' said the fox who went off in search of the deer, 'Don't you come near me you rotten scoundrel' said the deer ' oh dear, why did yo run off like that The lion was just getting up to acknowledge you as his son with that paternal cuff to the ear and then you ran off! you would not believe how long I it took me to persuade the lion that you running off must have been some misunderstanding, and that you are still the only one suitable to become the next king of the beasts!' The fox and the deer walk back to the lion, this time the lion restrains him self until he kills the deer with a single blow and begins to feast on it.
The lions eats and eats until the hungry fox gets up and very quietly takes the deer's brains and eats them up.
Once the lion has eaten everything else he pick about the bones and shouts 'where are the brains! I want to eat the brains!' 'oh lion', says the fox, 'what makes you think that a deer who came twice into your lair had any brains'
The goose walked with the fox.
'I hear you are very clever fox, I wish you would show me one of your tricks' 'certainly goose, come home for lunch with with me and I will show you a trick.
So they went to the fox's house, Inside the fox ate the goose for lunch,
The cat walked with the fox, 'I hear you are very clever fox, I only have one trick and that is to climb up a tree when I hear dogs, I wish you would show me some of your tricks'.
'Why certainly cat, I have seventeen tricks in my bag, ' just then a pack of dogs charged upon them, The cat climbed a tree, while the dogs ripped the fox into pieces,
A hungry Lion invited a bull to join him in sacrificing to the gods, when he got there, he snorted and backed away, 'Why are you going Bull' 'Because I can see you have everything ready apart from someone to sacrifice!'
I read the Oxford 'world's classics' edition, translated by Laura Gibbs.
This containsfables inpages of, ahem, fabulous text each one is given it's Perry number and the number it has in the compilation that the fable comes from.
As Madame Gibbs explains in the introduction there are various collections of 'Aesopian' fables, some Greek, others Roman, some in medieval Latin, one collection is in Greek but was a translation from Syriac.
Some were written in verse, others in prose, all are associated with the name of Aesop, Gibbs seems to think that most of these, even the medieval ones are genuinely ancient, one fable is also found in Hesiod and two others in this collection are similar to fables that he tells while a couple of others are the same as Buddhist Jatakas with three others from this collection similar.
So some at least of the fables gathered here are extremely old , the others may or may not be.
As such the collection here is not complete, butfables is quite a lot, Gibbs' arranges them thematically, traditionally they were ordered alphabetically by title or first line,
In addition to links to Indian story telling , there are also some overlaps with proverbs and ideas from the Hebrew bible.
And it would be surprising if there were not stories acknowledge no borders or boundaries, leap or ooze from one language to another, and generally spread themselves around the world.
Some of the stories are vicious, particularly early on it as striking how many ended in death, many are humorous though still involving death, although traditionally many of the stories do come complete with a moral, the moral did not always seem to be appropriate to the story.
Still the stories are wonderfully varied and hugely flexible, they can be religious, philosophical, scatological, political, or simply jokes.
I was finally prompted into reading this by reading sitelinkKaas because of the plain and obvious link between a cheeseepic and stories about garrulous animals from the ancient world.
Well I can only say that it would have a gouda idea if I had read either or both many years ago, I have been depriving myself.
The fables of Aesop have become one of the most enduring traditions of European culture, ever since they were first written down nearly two millennia ago.
Aesop was reputedly a tonguetied slave who miraculously received the power of speech from his legendary storytelling came the collections of prose and verse fables scattered throughout Greek and Roman literature.
First published in English by Caxton in, the fables and their morals continue to charm modern readers: who does not know the story of the tortoise and the hare, or the boy who cried wolf Aesop wrote many intelligent fables in here, and some are real life lessons.
One of the most famous, and also the one I take the most from, is The Hare and the Tortoise.
We all know the story and the maxim: slow and steady wins the race, Being arrogant and fast isnt all that, I remember reading this at school for the first time when I was around five to six years old, and somehow, it stuck with me.
I always take the tortoise approach in life whether it be writing essays or training for marathons, I take things at my own pace, and do things in my own time, It's the best way.
In terms of general readability though, I did find some of these very repetitive, Its not the sort of thing you read a lot of at once, as it all blurs into one.
Its best to take your time and read a few a day or perhaps just pick out a handful that you think will appeal to you.
For every decent one I read, I read two that were a bit pointless, Its very hit and miss, Conjunto de fábulas con una enseñanza, algunas de ellas muy conocidas como la de la lechera, el cascabel y el gato, la liebre y la tortuga ,la zorra y el racimo de uvas.
Vamos, que ha sido muy educativo con algunas enseñanzas, tales como las siguientes:
"Pon tu esfuerzo y dedicación en lo que realmente estés preparado, no en lo que no te corresponde"
"Nunca desprecies lo que parece insignificante, pues no hay ser tan débil que no pueda alcanzarte"
"Nunca traiciones la amistad sincera, pues si lo hicieras, tarde o temprano del cielo llegará el castigo"
"A quien hace alarde de sus propios éxitos, no tarda en aparecerle quien se los arrebate"
"Con paciencia se resuelven muchas dificultades"
"Quien mucho habla, poco es lo que dice"
"Nunca traslades la culpa a los demás de lo que no eres capaz de alcanzar"
"No niegues con tus actos, lo que pregonas con tus palabras"
"Más vale estar solo que mal acompañado"
"No vendas la piel del oso antes de cazarlo"
"En la vida encontrarás a muchos que se fingen cansados de ver trabajar"
"Con seguridad, constancia y paciencia, aunque a veces parezcamos lentos, obtendremos siempre el éxito"
Y muchas mas, si es cierto que algunas se repetían.
Valoración:/
Un libro que creas que le gustará a tu mejor amigo/a, Reto Popsugar.
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Obtain Aesop's Fables Written By Aesop Version
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