Posts filed under ‘.fox’
Windy Whistle
by Alice Lewis
Fall asleep now,
I will count until you make a wish,
Softly whisper quiet magic numbers,
Conjure up the little sound that’s carried in the wind,
When freed it wakes the trees out of their slumber.
CHORUS: Windy whistles, shinning drizzle,
Blow the sound away,
Drum the branches,
Lead the dances now.
You will soon find out the way to be invisible,
Hide behind the smallest leaf,
If you wait for long enough you’ll see it happening,
Those lonely sylphs come out of the green.
CHORUS: Windy whistles, shinning drizzle,
Blow the sound away,
Drum the branches,
Lead the dances now.
Windy whistles sew the hearts on,
Find the secret way,
See the traces, hiding places now.
But don’t try to tame them,
Oh, you’ll end the game then,
So just come to tell.
CHORUS: Windy whistles, shinning drizzle,
Blow the sound away,
Drum the branches,
Lead the dances now.
Windy whistles sew the hearts on,
Find the secret way,
See the traces, hiding places now.
CHORUS: Windy whistles, shinning drizzle,
Blow the sound away,
Drum the branches,
Lead the dances now.
The Bear Tricked by the Fox
Here is a translation of the Romanian folktale Ursul păcălit de vulpe by Ion Creangă.
And here is a slightly modified version that I did for and with my kindercat: pdf.
Once upon a time there was a cunning and tricky fox, as all foxes are. She was looking all night for something to eat, but she wasn’t lucky enough to find a single thing. When the light of the day came, she was resting in the tall grass, thinking how to find a way to get some food.
Laying on the ground like that, she suddenly felt some nice smell of fish. Looking around, she saw a cart coming.
- Hmmm! here’s the food I was waiting for, thought the hungry cunning fox.
So she went in the middle of the road and laid down on the ground as if she were dead.
When the peasant who slowly drove the cart approached and saw the fox, he stopped the bulls and feeling so lucky to find a dead fox in the middle of the road, because now he would be able to make a nice coat for his wife!
The man threw the fox in the cart over the fish and continued his way back home.
But as soon as the cart started to move, the hungry fox started throwing the fish down from the cart, on the road. When the cunning fox thought that it was enough fish for a feast, she jumped down from the cart to take all the fish. Then she took all the fish into her den and made herself a delicious meal.
While she was eating the fish, a bear just passed near his den and asked :
- What are you eating there? Wow! Fish!!! Yummy…and you have a lot! Please , give me some, please, I am so hungry too!
The greedy fox answered then:
- Don’t you even think about it, bear! I took a big risk to get this fish and I don’t take risks for anybody but myself! If you are so hungry, do what I did and go to the pond and try to catch with your tail as many fish as you want!
The innocent bear asked the fox to teach him how to do it. That was all the fox was waiting for!
- You go in the evening to the pond in the woods, and you put your tail into the water and wait until the day comes. Then you give a pull on it and see how many fish you got!
Very happy and confident, the bear went in the woods to the pond and put his tail in the cold water. It was a very cold night and the wind was blowing even colder.The water froze over and caught the bear’s tail in ice.
After a few hours of waiting, the poor bear was almost frozen and tried to pull his tail out from the cold water.
Poor bear! Instead of fish, he lost his tail!
Screaming in pain, the bear went to catch the fox to get his revenge but, the cunning fox was hiding in the hollow of a tree laughing at the naïve bear:
- Hey, bear! You wanted to catch all the fish from the pond and the fish ate your tail!
Angry, the bear found a stick and started searching the fox in the hole.
But when the bear was pulling the Fox’s leg, she was laughing at him saying he got a tree branch.
And when the Bear was pushing the tree, she was crying:
- Stop pushing so hard, you are breaking my legs, was pretending the tricky fox!
In vain tried the poor bear to pull out the fox from the hole, and after a while, tired and angry, he abandoned the idea…
And that’s how the poor bear was tricked by the cunning fox!
L’ours et le renard
This is a French translation by Eugène Stanciu of the Romanian folktale Ursul păcălit de vulpe by Ion Creangă
Il était une fois un renard rusé, comme tous les renards. Il avait chassé toute la nuit dans la forêt pour trouver quelque chose à manger. Mais il n’avait rien attrapé.
Alors, au matin, il alla sur le chemin qui menait au village. Soudain, il sentit une odeur appétissante: une charrette de poissons approchait.
« Voilà le repas que j’attendais! pensa le renard. Je vais faire semblant d’être mort au milieu du chemin! »
Le conducteur, voyant l’animal étendu au milieu de la route, arrêta ses bœufs.
- Que fait ici ce pauvre renard? se demanda-t-il.
Il descendit de la charrette, ramassa le renard et le jeta au milieu des poissons.
« Cette fourrure fera un beau manteau pour ma femme, se dit-il. »
En repartant, un cahot fit tomber du poisson.
Alors, le renard sauta de la charrette, ramassa les poissons et s’enfuit.
Il mangeait devant son terrier lorsqu’un ours arriva.
- Bon appétit mon ami ! dit l’ours. Peux-tu me donner un poisson? Je suis affamé!
- Non! répondit le renard. C’est à moi! Si tu as faim, va au lac, il est plein de poissons.
Mais comment faire pour les attraper? demanda l’ours.
- C’est simple! Plonge ta queue dans l’eau, attends jusqu’à l’aube.
Au matin, tu auras attrapé beaucoup de poissons.
L’ours suivit les conseils du renard. Mais, dans la nuit, un vent très froid souffla.
L’eau du lac commença à geler et la queue de l’ours fut prise dans la glace. L’ours souffrait tant du froid qu’il voulut s’en aller. Pour se libérer de la glace, il tira sur sa queue de toutes ses forces.
Alors, le malheureux ours se retrouva sans queue et sans poissons! En colère contre le renard, il alla lui demander des explications.
- Que t’arrive-t-il mon ami? ricana le renard, blotti dans son terrier.
- J’ai perdu ma queue à cause de toi, grogna l’ours.
- Est-ce ma faute si les poissons ont mangé ta queue? se moqua le renard.
L’ours, furieux, se précipita sur le renard et essaya de le faire sortir de son terrier. Mais n’y parvint pas.
Alors, penaud, l’ours s’enfuit vers la forêt. Il avait perdu sa queue, il n’avait pas attrapé de poissons et n’avait même pas réussi à punir ce maudit renard.
The Fox and the Cat
It happened that the cat met Mr. Fox in the woods. She thought, “He is intelligent and well experienced, and is highly regarded in the world,” so she spoke to him in a friendly manner, “Good-day, my dear Mr. Fox. How is it going? How are you? How are you getting by in these hard times?”
The fox, filled with arrogance, examined the cat from head to feet, and for a long time did not know whether he should give an answer. At last he said, “Oh, you poor beard-licker, you speckled fool, you hungry mouse hunter, what are you thinking? Have you the nerve to ask how I am doing? What do you know? How many tricks do you understand?”
“I understand but one,” answered the cat, modestly.
“What kind of a trick is it?” asked the fox.
“When the dogs are chasing me, I can jump into a tree and save myself.”
“Is that all?” said the fox. “I am master of a hundred tricks, and in addition to that I have a sackful of cunning. I feel sorry for you. Come with me, and I will teach you how one escapes from the dogs.”
Just then a hunter came by with four dogs. The cat jumped nimbly up a tree, and sat down at its top, where the branches and foliage completely hid her.
“Untie your sack, Mr. Fox, untie your sack,” the cat shouted to him, but the dogs had already seized him, and were holding him fast.
“Oh, Mr. Fox,” shouted the cat. “You and your hundred tricks are left in the lurch. If you been able to climb like I can, you would not have lost your life.”
- Source: Der Fuchs und die Katze, Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales — Grimms’ Fairy Tales), 7th ed. (Berlin, 1857), no. 75.
- This fable was added to the Grimms’ Kinder- und Hausmärchen with the second edition (1819).
- The Grimms’ immediate source has not been identified precisely. The tale is very old and very widely spread. Versions are found in the ancient Indian Panchatantra, the fables Aesop and of Jean de la Fontaine, as well as in oral traditions around the world.
- Translated by D. L. Ashliman. © 2001-2002.
- Aarne-Thompson, type 105, The Cat’s Only Trick.
Links to related sites
- The Fox and the Cat, additional fables of Aarne-Thompson type 105.
- The Grimm Brothers’ Children’s and Household Tales (Grimms’ Fairy Tales).
- The Grimm Brothers’ Home Page.
- D. L. Ashliman’s folktexts, a library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology.
Le Chat et le Renard
Jean de la Fontaine
Illustration: W. Aractingy
Le chat et le renard, comme beaux petits saints,
S’en allaient en pèlerinage.
C’étaient deux vrais tartufs, deux archipatelins
Deux francs patte-pelus qui, des frais du voyage,
Croquant mainte volaille, escroquant maint fromage,
S’indemnisaient à qui mieux mieux.
Le chemin étant long, et partant ennuyeux,
Pour l’accourcir ils disputèrent.
La dispute est d’un grand secours.
Sans elle on dormirait toujours.
Nos pèlerins s’égosillèrent.
Ayant bien disputé, l’on parla du prochain.
Le renard au chat dit enfin :
«Tu prétends être fort habile,
En sais-tu tant que moi? J’ai cent ruses au sac.
- Non, dit l’autre; je n’ai qu’un tour dans mon bissac ;
Mais je soutiens qu’il en vaut mille.»
Eux de recommencer la dispute à l’envi.
Sur le que si, que non, tous deux étant ainsi,
Une meute apaisa la noise.
Le chat dit au renard :« Fouille en ton sac, ami ;
Cherche en ta cervelle matoise
Un stratagème sûr ; pour moi, voici le mien. »
A ces mots, sur un arbre il grimpa bel et bien.
L’autre fit cent tours inutiles,
Entra dans cent terriers, mit cent fois en défaut
Tous les confrères de Brifaut.
Partout il tenta des asiles ;
Et ce fut partout sans succès ;
La fumée y pourvut, ainsi que les bassets.
Au sortir d’un terrier, deux chiens aux pieds agiles
L’étranglèrent du premier bond.
Le trop d’expédients peut gâter une affaire :
On perd du temps au choix, on tente, on veut tout faire.
N’en ayons qu’un, mais qu’il soit bon.
The Cat and the Fox
The fox and cat, two saints indeed,
To make a pilgrimage agreed.
Two artful hypocrites they were,
Soft-footed, sly, and smooth, and fair.
Full many a fowl, and many a cheese,
Made up for loss of time and ease.
The road was long, and weary too;
To shorten it, to talk they flew.
For argument drives sleep away,
And helps a journey on, they say.
The fox to the cat says, “My friend,
To be so clever you pretend;
Say what am I? I’ve in this sack
A hundred tricks.” “Well, on my back,”
The other, very timid, said,
“I’ve only one, I’m quite afraid;
But that, I hold, is worth a dozen,
My enemies to cheat and cozen.”
Then the dispute began anew,
With “So say I!” and “I tell you!”
Till, suddenly, some hounds in sight
Silenced them soon, as it well might.
The cat cried, “Search your bag, my friend,
Or you are lost, you may depend.
Choose out your choicest stratagem!”
Puss climbed a tree, and baffled them.
The fox a hundred burrows sought:
Turned, dodged, and doubled, as he thought
To put the terriers at fault,
And shun their rough and rude assault.
In every place he tried for shelter,
But begged it vainly. Helter-skelter
The hounds were on the treacherous scent,
That still betrayed, where’er he went.
At last, as from a hole he started,
Two swift dogs on poor Reynard darted;
Then came up all the yelping crew,
And at his throat at once they flew.
Too many schemes spoil everything.
We lose our time in settling.
Have only one, as wise man should;
But let that one be sound and good.
* Source: Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695), Fables, book 9, fable 14. Translated by Walter Thornbury
* Link to the text in the original French: Le Chat et le Renard
The Fox and the Cat
A Fox was boasting to a Cat of its clever devices for escaping its enemies. “I have a whole bag of tricks,” he said, “which contains a hundred ways of escaping my enemies.”
“I have only one,” said the Cat; “but I can generally manage with that.” Just at that moment they heard the cry of a pack of hounds coming towards them, and the Cat immediately scampered up a tree and hid herself in the boughs. “This is my plan,” said the Cat. “What are you going to do?” The Fox thought first of one way, then of another, and while he was debating the hounds came nearer and nearer, and at last the Fox in his confusion was caught up by the hounds and soon killed by the huntsmen.
Miss Puss, who had been looking on, said:
“Better one safe way than a hundred on which you cannot reckon.”
