Hesitant Wolf &Scrunulous Fox Fables Selected from World Literature Edited and with an Introduction b\7 Karen Kennerly H esitantWolf Sc rupulous Fox: Fables Selected from W orld Literature EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION by Karen Kennerly ANDOM HOUSE : NEW YORR Copyright © 1973 by Karen Kennerly All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Con- ventions. Publislied in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Designed by Antonina Krass Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Kennerly, Karen, comp. Hesitant wolf and scrupulous fox. SUMMARY: Over 150 fables selected from 4,000 years of literature. !.F a b les. [1. Fables] I. Title ة.i١Ng82.K4 39117693-77 452'2 ISBN 0-304-46496-6 Manufactured in the United States of America First Edition Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to re- print previously published material: A. s. Barnes & Company, Inc.: For adaptations of “The Snail and the Mirror’’ and “The Black Marten” from Aesop Without Morals, translated by Lloyd w . Daley. Published by Thomas Yoseloff. A. s. Barn'es & Company, Inc., George Allen & Unwin Ltd. and UNESCO House: For “.Ape, Glow-Worm, and Bird” from The Panchatantra, translated by Franklin Edgerton. om ؛Jonathan Cape Ltd.: For “Fable of the Mermaid and tlie Drunks” f We Are Many, by Pablo Neruda, translated by Alistair Reid. Distributed in the U.S. by Grossman Publishers, Inc. Columbia University Press: For “The Sea-Bird” (page 194) and Chuang Chou Hunting” (pages 218-219) from The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu age ؟ ؛ ”translated by Burton Watson. For “Keeper of the Royal Hat ,(1968) -Basic Writ ؛and “The Rich Man of Sung” (page 77) from Han Fei Tzu ؛32 ؟ings (1964), translated by Burton Watson. For "ChUang Shu-liang in th Moonlight (pages 134-135) from Hsiin-Tzu: Basic Writings (1963), translated by Burton Watson. For “ Beans and Husks” (page 62) from Essays in Idleness (1967), KenkS, translated by Donald Keene. The Dial Press: For “Coyote and Junco” (“At Gourd-Patch Rise Old Lady Jiinco Had Her Home and Coyote”) from Finding The Center: Narrative Poetry of the Zuni Indians, translated by Dennis Tedlock. Copyright © 1972 by Dennis Tedlock. Doubleday & Company, Inc., and Faber and Faber Ltd.: For "The Lady and the Bear” from Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. Copyright 1951 by Theodore Roethke. E. p. Dutton & Co.. Inc., and j. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.: For “A Country Mouse and a Town Mouse” from Collected Works of Horace by Horace, trans- lated by Lord Dunsany and Michael Oakley. Everyman's Library Edition. E. p. Dutton & Co., Inc.: For “Privilege” (Privilegiia) from The Literature of Eighteenth Century Russia, Vol. II, by Harold B. Segel. Copyright © 1967 by Harold B. Segel. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. and International Famous Agency on behalf of Jonathan Cape Ltd.: For "On Angels” from City Life, by Donald Barthelme. .by Donald Barthelme ل Copyright © 1968, 1969, 970 Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., and Faber and Faber Ltd.: For "Crow’s Fall” from Crow, by Ted Hughes. Copyright © 1971 by Ted Hughes. Orig- inally appeared in The New Yorker. Harvard University Press: For Babrius— #38 “The Unkindest Cut of All” (“The Wounded Pine Tree”), #60 “Surfeited at Last” (“Drowning Mouse”), #79 "Dog and His Shatlow,” #84 "Gnat on the Bull's Horn” (“Gnat and the Bull”), #105 “Tire Robber Robbed” (“Wolf Robbed”), #ro7 “The Lion and the Mouse”: Phaedrus#2, Book I, “The Frogs Asked for a King,” #26, Book I, “The Fox and the Stork”: Perotti's Appendix, #r8, “ Cock Carried in Litter by Cats” (“Cock in His Litter”) from Babrius and Phaedrus, The Loeb Classi- cal Library, translated by Ben Edwin Perry. Copyright © 1965 try the Presi- dent and Fellows of Harvard College. Professor Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard: For “Nero's Respite” from Selected Poems, by c. p. Cavafy, translated by Edmund Keeley and Plrilip Sherrard. Copyriglit © 1972 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. (Pub- lished by Princeton University Press). Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Faber and Faber Ltd.: For “Tlie Plot Against tire Giant” fronr The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. Copyright 1923 and renewed r 951 by Wallace Stevens. Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc., and A. p. Watt & Son on behalf of Mr. M. B. Yeats, tire Macmillan Company of London & Bassingstoke and the Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd.: For “Tire. Dolls” from Collected Poems, by William Butler Yeats. Copyright rgr6 by Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. renewed 1944 by Bertha Georgie Yeats. The New American Library, Inc.: For “The Hedgelrog and the Hare" from Fables and Fairy Tales, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Ann Dunnigan. Copyriglit © 1962 by Ann Dunnigan. Pantheon Books, a Division of Random House, Inc.: For "The Grass- hopper and the Ant” from A Bestiary, edited and translated by Richard .١Vilbur. Copyright © 1955 by Pantheon Books, Inc Pantheon Books, a Division of Random House, Inc. and Mrs. Paul Black- burn: For “Narrow Spoonful,” "A Very Real Story,” and “Story With No Moral,” from Cronopios and Famas, by Julio Cortäzar, translated by Paul Blackburn. Copyright © 1969 by Random House, Inc. Oxford University Press: For an adaptation of “The Master and the Dog” (“The Obedient Dog”) by Ignacy Krasicki, from Five Centuries of Polish Poetry 1450-1970, translated by Jerzy Peterkiervicz and Burns Singer ivitlr new poems translated in collaboration with Jon Stallivorthy. Penguin Books Ltd.: For “The Woman and the Jug’’ from The Wasps, by Aristophanes, translated by David Barrett. Copyright © 1964 by David Bar- rett. For “Hares and Lion's" from The Politics, Book 11, by -Aristotle, trans- latetl by T. A. Sinclair. Copyright © 1962 by the Estate of T. A. Sinclair. -trans ؛r yh ؛Quarterly Review 0/ Literature and Michael Hamburger: F lations of “Zeus and the Horse” and “Story of the Old Wolf” by G. E. Lessing. William Saroyan: For “How tlie Pompous Remark of the Turtle Spoi.led tlie Last Moments of the Lion,” “How tlie Hair of Women Is Long, the Under- standing Short, and What a Ghastly Lack of Appreciatio.n Theye Is in Them for Genius” from Saroyan’s Fables. Copyriglit 1941 by William Saroyan. (Har- court Brace Jovanovich, Inc.) Schocken Books Inc. and Martin Seeker & Warburg Ltd.: For “A Little Fable” from The Great Wall of China, by Franz Kafra. Copyright © 1946 by Schocken Books Inc. Simon & Schuster, Inc., and .Jonathan Cape Ltd.: For "Randolf’s Party from In His Own Write, by John Lennon. Copyright © 1964 by John Lennon. Teachers and Writers Collaborative: For “The Fox and the Grapes by Donald Gear. Mrs. James Thurber: For “The Fox .and tlie Crow” and “Variations on the Theme” from Fables for Our Time, by James Thurber. Copyriglit 1940 by James Thurber, copyright © 1968 by Helen Thurber. Published by Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. Originally appeared in The New Yorker. The University of Chicago Press: For “The Donkey and the Jackal ‘The Frogs That Rode Snakeback' “Butter-Blinded Brahman,” “The Blue Jackal,” “ Mice That Ate Iron,” and “Poor Blossom,” from The Panchatantra, trans- of Chicago ؛lated by Arthur w. Ryder. 'Copyriglit © 1956 by The University Tlie University of Michigan' Press: For “Tlie Hawk anti the Niglitingale” from Works and Days, by Hesiod, translated by Richmontl Lattimore. Copy- right © 1959 by The University of Michigan. The University Press of Virginia: For “The Fox anti the Grapes, Moun- tain in Labor,” an'd “Tlie Frog Jealous of tlie Ox” from The Best Fables of La Fontaine, translated by Francis Duke. The Viking Press, Inc., and The Society of Authors as the liter.ary repre- sentative of the Estate of James Joyce: For “The Mooske and the Gripes from Finnegans Wake, by James Joyc'e. Copyright 1939 tiy James Joyce, © 1967 by George Joyce and Lucia Joyce. Contents لﺀﺀ FOREWORD INTRODUCTION PART ONE 1. Cynical fables, in which we are doomed no matter how exemplary our behavior may be A Little Fable—Franz Kafka Tlte Sea-Bird— Chuang Tzu Tlie Snake and tlie Shepherd—Greece Tlie Hawk and the Nightingale—Hesiod Poor Blossom— R/ze Panchatantra Tlie Obedient Dog—Ignacy Krasicki A Fox and a Dragon—Roger L’Estrange Keeper of the Royal Hat—Hon Fei Tzu Lennon „ د—Randolf's Party Tlie Nut and tlie Campanile—Leonardo Do Vinci Sick Kite and Her Mother—Roger L’Estrange 2. Failles of gentle warning: Instruction suffices as due punishment Zeus and the Horse— Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Tlie Story of the Hungry Elephant—Rtdn (Kamerun) TYxt Rose—j o h a i GotttrieA-uon Herder The Lion and the Mouse—Robriws Cock in His Litter—^esop Fable of tlie Man and of tlie Lyori— William Caxton The Acorn and the Pumpkin—To Fontaine Cliuang Chou Hunting—c^oong Tzu Tlie Mouse's Hole—tlie Kojiki 3. Fables which are peopled by those who never will perceive the foolishness of their actions Marten and the File— Aesop Nero's Respite—c. p. Cavafy The Two Matches— Robert Louis Stevenson Drowning Mouse— Babrius TJie Frog fealous of tlie Ox— La Fontaine Tlie Monkey and tlie Spectacles—ban Krylov Crow's Fall— Ted Hughes esop ك—The Snail and tlie Mirror How tlie Hail' of W omen Is Tong, tlie Understanding Sliort, anti What a Gliastly Lack of Appreciation Tliere Is in Tliem for Genius— W illiam Saroyan Fable of tlie Mermaid and tlie Drunks—TrtWo Neruda Coyote Goes Fishing— Furo^ The Narrow Spoonful—ywho Cortdzar 4. Fables which make social and political statements Hares and Lions— Aesop Tlie Wasps— G. E. Lessing The Companions of Ulysses—Tfl Fontaine Y‘\s\x Soup— ban Krylou A Counsel of Birds foi' Cliusing More Kings—Toger L ’Estrange A Fox and a Hedge-Hog—Toger L ’Estrange 4'lie Ostricli— G.