Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section eleven of Aesop's Fables. A new translation written by
Azap translated by the S. Barnon Jones. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
This section has been read by a rustling Carlyle. The
(00:22):
Farmer and the Stork. A farmer set some traps in
a field which he had lately soon with corn, in
order to catch the cranes which came to pick up
the seed. When he returned to look at his traps,
he found several cranes caught, and among them a stork,
which begged to be let go, and said, you ought
(00:43):
not to kill me. I'm not a crane but a stork,
as you can easily see by my fathers, and I
am the most honest and harmless of birds. But the
farmer replied, it's nothing to me what you are. I
find you among these cranes who ruin my crops, and
like them, you shall suffer. The moral of the story
(01:04):
is that if you choose bad companions, no one will
believe that you are anything but bad yourself. The charger
and the miller, a horse who had been used to
carry his rider into battle, felt himself growing old and
chose to work in a mill instead. He now no
(01:26):
longer found himself stepping out proudly to the beating of
the drums, who was compelled to slave away all day,
grinding the corn, bewailing his hard lot. He said one
day to the miller, ah me, I was once a
splendid war horse, gaily caparisoned and attended by a groom
whose sole duty was to see to my wants. How
(01:48):
different is my present condition? I wish I had never
given up the battlefield for the mill. The miller replied
with asperity. Is no use you regret in the past.
Fortune has many ups and downs. You must take them
as the come. The grasshopper and the owl. An owl
(02:12):
who lived in a hollow tree was in the habit
of feeding by night and sleeping by day. But her
slumbers were greatly disturbed by the chirping of a grasshopper
who had taken up his abode in the branches. She
begged him repeatedly to have some consideration for her comfort.
For the grasshopper, if anything, only chirp the louder. At
(02:33):
last The owl could stand it no longer, but determined
to rid herself of the pest by means of a trick.
Addressing herself to the grasshopper, she said, in her pleasantest manner,
as I cannot sleep for your song, which, believe me,
it's as sweet as the notes of Apollo's lyre. I
have a mind to taste some nectar which Minerva gave
(02:56):
me the other day. Won't you come in and join me?
The grasshopper was flattered by the praise of his song,
and his mouth too watered at the mention of the
delicious drink, so he said he would be delighted. No
sooner had he got inside the hollow where the owl
was sitting, than she pounced upon him and ate him up.
(03:20):
The grasshopper and the ants. One fine day in winter,
some ants were busy drying their store of corn, which
had got rather damped during a long spell of rain. Presently,
up came a grasshopper and begged them to spare her
a few grains, for she said, I'm simply starving. The
(03:41):
ants stopped work for a moment, though this was against
their principles. May we ask, said they, what you were
doing with yourself? All last summer. Why didn't you collect
a store of food for the winter? The fact is,
replied the grasshopper, I was so busy singing that I
hadn't the time. If you spent the summer singing, replied
(04:04):
the ants, you can't do better than spend the winter dancing,
And they chuckled and went on with their work. The
farmer and the viper. One winter, a farmer found a
viper frozen and numb with cold, and out of pity,
(04:25):
picked it up and placed it in his bosom. The
viper was no sooner revived by the warmth than it
turned upon its benefactor and inflicted a fatal bite upon him.
And as the poor man lay dying, he cried, I
have only got what I deserved for taking compassion on
so villainous a creature. The moral of the story is
(04:47):
that kindness is thrown away upon the evil. The two frogs.
Two frogs were neighbors. One lived in a marsh where
the there was plenty of water, which frogs love. The
other lived in a line some distance away, where all
the water to be had was that which lay in
the ruts. After rain. The marsh frog warned his friend
(05:11):
and pressed him to come and live with him in
the marsh, for he would find his quarters there far
more comfortable and, what was still more important, more safe.
But the other refused, saying that he could not bring
himself to move from a place to which he had
become accustomed. A few days afterwards, a heavy wagon came
down the lane, and he was crushed to death under
(05:32):
the wheels. The cobbler turned doctor, a very unskillful cobbler,
finding himself unable to make a living at his trade,
gave up minding boots and took to doctoring instead. He
gave out that he had the secret of a universal
and he doote against all poisons, and acquired no small
(05:55):
reputation thanks to his talent for puffing himself up. One day, however,
he fell very ill, and the king of the country
bethought him that he would taste the value of his remedy.
Calling therefore for a cup, he poured out a dose
of the antidote, and, under pretense of mixing poison with it,
added a little water and commanded the cobbler to drink it.
(06:18):
Terrified by the fear of being poisoned, the cobbler confessed
that he knew nothing about medicine, and that his antidote
was worthless. Then the king summoned his subjects and addressed
them as follows. What folly could be greater than yours?
Here is the cobbler, to whom no one will send
his boots to be mended, and yet you have not
(06:39):
hesitated to entrust him with your lives. The ass, the cock,
and the lion. An ass and a cock were in
a cattle pin together. Presently a lion, who had been
starving for days, came along and was just about to
fall upon the ass and make a meal of him.
(07:00):
In the cock, rising to his full height and flapping
his wings, vigorously, uttered a tremendous crew. Now, if there
is one thing that frightens a lion, it is the
crewing of a cock, and this one had no sooner
heard the noise than he fled. The ass was mightily
elated at this, and thought that if the lion couldn't
(07:21):
face a cock, he would be still less likely to
stand up to an ass. So he ran out and
pursued the lion. But when the two had got well
out of sight and hearing of the cock, the lion
suddenly turned upon the ass and ate him up, the
moral of the story being that false confidence often leads
(07:42):
to disaster. The belly and the members. The members of
the body once rebelled against the belly. You, they said,
to the belly, live in luxury and sloth and never
do a stroke of work. Well, we not only have
to do all the hard work there is to be done,
(08:04):
but are actually your slaves and have to minister to
all your wants. Now we will do so no longer,
and you can shift for yourself in the future. They
were as good as their word, and left the belly
to starve. The result was just what might have been expected.
The whole body soon began to fail, and the members
(08:25):
and all shared in the general collapse. And then they
saw too late how foolish they had been. The bald
man and the fly. A fly settled on the head
of a bald man and bit him. In his eagerness
to kill it. The bald man hid himself a smart slap,
(08:49):
but the fly escaped and said to him in derision,
you tried to kill me for just one little bite.
What will you do to yourself now for the heavy
smack you've just given yourself? Oh, for that blow. I
bear no grudge, he replied, for I never intended myself
any harm. But as for you, you contemptible insect who
(09:11):
live by sucking human blood, I'd have borne a good
deal more than that for the satisfaction of dashing the
life out of you. The ass and the Wolf. An
ass was feeding in a meadow and catching sight of
his enemy, the wolf in the distance, pretended to be
very lame and hobbled painfully along. When the wolf came up,
(09:35):
he asked to ask how he came to be so lame,
and the ass replied that in going through a hedge,
he had trodden on a thorn, and he begged the
wolf to pull it out with his teeth. In case,
said the ass, when you eat me, it should stick
in your throat and hurt you very much. The wolf
said he would, and told the ass to lift up
(09:55):
his foot, and then gave his whole mind to getting
out the thorn. But the ass suddenly let out with
his heels and fetched the wolf a fearful kick in
the mouth, breaking all his teeth, and then he galloped
off at full speed. As soon as he could speak,
The wolf growled to himself, ah, it serves me right.
(10:17):
My father taught me to kill, and I ought to
have stuck to that train instead of attempting to cure
the monkey and the camel. At a gathering of all
the beasts, the monkey gave an exhibition of dancing and
entertained the company vastly. There was great applause at the finish,
(10:38):
which excited the envy of the camel and made him
desire to win the favor of this assembly by the
same means. So he got up from his place and
began dancing. But he cut such a ridiculous figure as
he plunged about, and made such a grotesque exhibition of
his ungainly person, that the beasts sol fell upon him
(10:58):
with ridicule and drew him away. The sick Man and
the Doctor. A sick man received a visit from his doctor,
who asked him how he was fairly well. Doctor said
he but I find I sweat a great deal. Ah,
(11:18):
said the doctor. That's a good sign. On his next visit,
he asked the same question, and his patient replied, I'm
much as usual, but I've taken to having shivering fits
which leave me cold all over. Ah said the doctor.
That's a good sign too. When he came the third
time and inquired, as before about his patient's health. The
(11:40):
sick man said that he felt very feverish. A very
good sign, said the doctor. You are doing very nicely. Indeed,
afterwards a friend came to see the invalid, and, on
asking him how he did, reperceived this reply, my dear friend,
I'm dying of good signs. The Travelers and the plane Tree.
(12:05):
Two travelers were walking along a bare and dusty road
in the heat of a summer's day, coming presently to
a plane tree. They joyfully turned aside to shelter from
the burning rays of the sun in the deep shade
of its spreading branches. As they rested, looking up into
the tree, one of them remarked to his companion, what
(12:26):
a useless tree the plain is. It bears no fruit
and is of no service to man at all. Plain
tree interrupted him with indignation. You ungrateful creature, it cried,
You come and take shelter under me from the scorching sun,
and then, in the very act of enjoying the cool
(12:49):
shade of my foliage, you abuse me and call me
good for nothing. The moral of the story is that
many a service is met with ingratitude the flea and
the ox. A flea once said to an ox, how
(13:10):
comes it that a big, strong fellow like you is
content to serve mankind and do all of their hard
work for them, while I, who am no bigger than you, see,
live on their bodies and drink my fill of their
blood and never do a stroke for it, all, to
which the ox replied, men are very kind to me,
and so I am grateful to them. They feed and
(13:33):
house me very well, and every now and then they
show their fondness for me by patting me on the
head and neck. And they'd pat me too, said the flea,
if I let them. But I take good care they don't,
or there would be nothing left of me. End of
(13:54):
Section eleven.
Section eleven of Aesop's Fables. A new translation written by
Azap translated by the S. Barnon Jones. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
This section has been read by a rustling Carlyle. The
(00:22):
Farmer and the Stork. A farmer set some traps in
a field which he had lately soon with corn, in
order to catch the cranes which came to pick up
the seed. When he returned to look at his traps,
he found several cranes caught, and among them a stork,
which begged to be let go, and said, you ought
(00:43):
not to kill me. I'm not a crane but a stork,
as you can easily see by my fathers, and I
am the most honest and harmless of birds. But the
farmer replied, it's nothing to me what you are. I
find you among these cranes who ruin my crops, and
like them, you shall suffer. The moral of the story
(01:04):
is that if you choose bad companions, no one will
believe that you are anything but bad yourself. The charger
and the miller, a horse who had been used to
carry his rider into battle, felt himself growing old and
chose to work in a mill instead. He now no
(01:26):
longer found himself stepping out proudly to the beating of
the drums, who was compelled to slave away all day,
grinding the corn, bewailing his hard lot. He said one
day to the miller, ah me, I was once a
splendid war horse, gaily caparisoned and attended by a groom
whose sole duty was to see to my wants. How
(01:48):
different is my present condition? I wish I had never
given up the battlefield for the mill. The miller replied
with asperity. Is no use you regret in the past.
Fortune has many ups and downs. You must take them
as the come. The grasshopper and the owl. An owl
(02:12):
who lived in a hollow tree was in the habit
of feeding by night and sleeping by day. But her
slumbers were greatly disturbed by the chirping of a grasshopper
who had taken up his abode in the branches. She
begged him repeatedly to have some consideration for her comfort.
For the grasshopper, if anything, only chirp the louder. At
(02:33):
last The owl could stand it no longer, but determined
to rid herself of the pest by means of a trick.
Addressing herself to the grasshopper, she said, in her pleasantest manner,
as I cannot sleep for your song, which, believe me,
it's as sweet as the notes of Apollo's lyre. I
have a mind to taste some nectar which Minerva gave
(02:56):
me the other day. Won't you come in and join me?
The grasshopper was flattered by the praise of his song,
and his mouth too watered at the mention of the
delicious drink, so he said he would be delighted. No
sooner had he got inside the hollow where the owl
was sitting, than she pounced upon him and ate him up.
(03:20):
The grasshopper and the ants. One fine day in winter,
some ants were busy drying their store of corn, which
had got rather damped during a long spell of rain. Presently,
up came a grasshopper and begged them to spare her
a few grains, for she said, I'm simply starving. The
(03:41):
ants stopped work for a moment, though this was against
their principles. May we ask, said they, what you were
doing with yourself? All last summer. Why didn't you collect
a store of food for the winter? The fact is,
replied the grasshopper, I was so busy singing that I
hadn't the time. If you spent the summer singing, replied
(04:04):
the ants, you can't do better than spend the winter dancing,
And they chuckled and went on with their work. The
farmer and the viper. One winter, a farmer found a
viper frozen and numb with cold, and out of pity,
(04:25):
picked it up and placed it in his bosom. The
viper was no sooner revived by the warmth than it
turned upon its benefactor and inflicted a fatal bite upon him.
And as the poor man lay dying, he cried, I
have only got what I deserved for taking compassion on
so villainous a creature. The moral of the story is
(04:47):
that kindness is thrown away upon the evil. The two frogs.
Two frogs were neighbors. One lived in a marsh where
the there was plenty of water, which frogs love. The
other lived in a line some distance away, where all
the water to be had was that which lay in
the ruts. After rain. The marsh frog warned his friend
(05:11):
and pressed him to come and live with him in
the marsh, for he would find his quarters there far
more comfortable and, what was still more important, more safe.
But the other refused, saying that he could not bring
himself to move from a place to which he had
become accustomed. A few days afterwards, a heavy wagon came
down the lane, and he was crushed to death under
(05:32):
the wheels. The cobbler turned doctor, a very unskillful cobbler,
finding himself unable to make a living at his trade,
gave up minding boots and took to doctoring instead. He
gave out that he had the secret of a universal
and he doote against all poisons, and acquired no small
(05:55):
reputation thanks to his talent for puffing himself up. One day, however,
he fell very ill, and the king of the country
bethought him that he would taste the value of his remedy.
Calling therefore for a cup, he poured out a dose
of the antidote, and, under pretense of mixing poison with it,
added a little water and commanded the cobbler to drink it.
(06:18):
Terrified by the fear of being poisoned, the cobbler confessed
that he knew nothing about medicine, and that his antidote
was worthless. Then the king summoned his subjects and addressed
them as follows. What folly could be greater than yours?
Here is the cobbler, to whom no one will send
his boots to be mended, and yet you have not
(06:39):
hesitated to entrust him with your lives. The ass, the cock,
and the lion. An ass and a cock were in
a cattle pin together. Presently a lion, who had been
starving for days, came along and was just about to
fall upon the ass and make a meal of him.
(07:00):
In the cock, rising to his full height and flapping
his wings, vigorously, uttered a tremendous crew. Now, if there
is one thing that frightens a lion, it is the
crewing of a cock, and this one had no sooner
heard the noise than he fled. The ass was mightily
elated at this, and thought that if the lion couldn't
(07:21):
face a cock, he would be still less likely to
stand up to an ass. So he ran out and
pursued the lion. But when the two had got well
out of sight and hearing of the cock, the lion
suddenly turned upon the ass and ate him up, the
moral of the story being that false confidence often leads
(07:42):
to disaster. The belly and the members. The members of
the body once rebelled against the belly. You, they said,
to the belly, live in luxury and sloth and never
do a stroke of work. Well, we not only have
to do all the hard work there is to be done,
(08:04):
but are actually your slaves and have to minister to
all your wants. Now we will do so no longer,
and you can shift for yourself in the future. They
were as good as their word, and left the belly
to starve. The result was just what might have been expected.
The whole body soon began to fail, and the members
(08:25):
and all shared in the general collapse. And then they
saw too late how foolish they had been. The bald
man and the fly. A fly settled on the head
of a bald man and bit him. In his eagerness
to kill it. The bald man hid himself a smart slap,
(08:49):
but the fly escaped and said to him in derision,
you tried to kill me for just one little bite.
What will you do to yourself now for the heavy
smack you've just given yourself? Oh, for that blow. I
bear no grudge, he replied, for I never intended myself
any harm. But as for you, you contemptible insect who
(09:11):
live by sucking human blood, I'd have borne a good
deal more than that for the satisfaction of dashing the
life out of you. The ass and the Wolf. An
ass was feeding in a meadow and catching sight of
his enemy, the wolf in the distance, pretended to be
very lame and hobbled painfully along. When the wolf came up,
(09:35):
he asked to ask how he came to be so lame,
and the ass replied that in going through a hedge,
he had trodden on a thorn, and he begged the
wolf to pull it out with his teeth. In case,
said the ass, when you eat me, it should stick
in your throat and hurt you very much. The wolf
said he would, and told the ass to lift up
(09:55):
his foot, and then gave his whole mind to getting
out the thorn. But the ass suddenly let out with
his heels and fetched the wolf a fearful kick in
the mouth, breaking all his teeth, and then he galloped
off at full speed. As soon as he could speak,
The wolf growled to himself, ah, it serves me right.
(10:17):
My father taught me to kill, and I ought to
have stuck to that train instead of attempting to cure
the monkey and the camel. At a gathering of all
the beasts, the monkey gave an exhibition of dancing and
entertained the company vastly. There was great applause at the finish,
(10:38):
which excited the envy of the camel and made him
desire to win the favor of this assembly by the
same means. So he got up from his place and
began dancing. But he cut such a ridiculous figure as
he plunged about, and made such a grotesque exhibition of
his ungainly person, that the beasts sol fell upon him
(10:58):
with ridicule and drew him away. The sick Man and
the Doctor. A sick man received a visit from his doctor,
who asked him how he was fairly well. Doctor said
he but I find I sweat a great deal. Ah,
(11:18):
said the doctor. That's a good sign. On his next visit,
he asked the same question, and his patient replied, I'm
much as usual, but I've taken to having shivering fits
which leave me cold all over. Ah said the doctor.
That's a good sign too. When he came the third
time and inquired, as before about his patient's health. The
(11:40):
sick man said that he felt very feverish. A very
good sign, said the doctor. You are doing very nicely. Indeed,
afterwards a friend came to see the invalid, and, on
asking him how he did, reperceived this reply, my dear friend,
I'm dying of good signs. The Travelers and the plane Tree.
(12:05):
Two travelers were walking along a bare and dusty road
in the heat of a summer's day, coming presently to
a plane tree. They joyfully turned aside to shelter from
the burning rays of the sun in the deep shade
of its spreading branches. As they rested, looking up into
the tree, one of them remarked to his companion, what
(12:26):
a useless tree the plain is. It bears no fruit
and is of no service to man at all. Plain
tree interrupted him with indignation. You ungrateful creature, it cried,
You come and take shelter under me from the scorching sun,
and then, in the very act of enjoying the cool
(12:49):
shade of my foliage, you abuse me and call me
good for nothing. The moral of the story is that
many a service is met with ingratitude the flea and
the ox. A flea once said to an ox, how
(13:10):
comes it that a big, strong fellow like you is
content to serve mankind and do all of their hard
work for them, while I, who am no bigger than you, see,
live on their bodies and drink my fill of their
blood and never do a stroke for it, all, to
which the ox replied, men are very kind to me,
and so I am grateful to them. They feed and
(13:33):
house me very well, and every now and then they
show their fondness for me by patting me on the
head and neck. And they'd pat me too, said the flea,
if I let them. But I take good care they don't,
or there would be nothing left of me. End of
(13:54):
Section eleven.
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