Selected Fables of Jean de la Fontaine

Alexander Calder

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780486149882
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Monographies d'artistes

All the imagination, whimsy, and invention that have made Alexander Calder's mobiles and stabiles so popular. 36 fables — in rhymed translation by Eunice Clark — with a Calder drawing for each fable and 12 additional vignettes. Includes `The Lion in Love` and `The Hen That Laid the Golden Eggs.`

THE CAT AND THE RAT

Four different animals were wont

(Rascally spirits all) to haunt

The hollow trunk of an aged pine:

Milady weasel with the long waist line,

Grip-Cheese, the cat, Mesh-Munch, the rat,

And one owl, a fowl disconsolate.

So many gathered at this one site

That a man laid out some nets one night

Around the pine-tree. Early next day,

The cat set forth to stalk his prey.

He failed in the murky light of dawn

To spot the trap. He’s caught! He’s gone!

He sets up a howl of desperation.

The rat comes running in great elation

To see his most deadly of enemies

Caught in the toils. Then cries Grip-Cheese:

“Dear friend, the signs of your prodigality

Are numerous in my locality.

Come help me out of this trap where I fell

All unknowing. My heart did well

When, by some singular impulse, I

Made you the apple of my eye—

Sole among rats—and lavished my love.

I’m glad, I give thanks to the gods above

That I did. In fact I was going to prayers

Like a god-fearing cat, at dawn, and the snares

Snapped around me. My life’s in your hands.

Dearest, come and undo these bands.”

“What’s in it for me?” inquired the rat

“I’ll swear a deathless concordat

With you,” said Grip-Cheese. “My very claws

Are at your service. You’ll have no cause

To fear, I’ll guard you from all reprisal,

I’ll eat the owl-wife’s mate and the weasel,

Whose feelings for you are distinctly cool.”

At that the rat replied, “You fool!

I’d be a sucker to set you free!”

And he made for his hole in the old pine-tree.

There, the weasel was on the prowl,

So he climbed higher and met the owl.

Danger lurked wherever he turned.

’Twas the lesser evil—Mesh-munch adjourned

To the cat, and managed, bit by bit

To disengage the hypocrite.

Just then the trapper himself drew nigh,

So the new partnership had to fly.

*

Later the cat saw the rat in the distance,

Alert and ready to make resistance;

“Brother,” he said, “Come give me a kiss;

Your wariness of me I take amiss.

Do you see your former partner as foe?

Do you think that I could forget that I owe

My life, after God, to you.” Said the rat,

“And I, do you think that I’d forget

Your nature? What pact gives the certitude

That a cat has a sense of gratitude?

Does anyone, indeed, rely

On covenants made of necessity?”

THE HORSE’S REVENGE

Historically the horse’s place

Was not to serve the human race.

When acorns were man’s only foods

Horse, ass and mule could make the woods

Their home. And then one didn’t see

As in the present century

So many saddles, so many packs,

So many carts, so many hacks,

So many trappings, so many gigs,

So many military rigs;

And along with fewer carriages

Went fewer feasts and marriages.

A horse sought vengeance, in the past,

Upon a stag, which went so fast

That he could never, on the run,

Be attacked by anyone.

Requiring more skill, the horse

To a human had recourse.

The man got reins and leaped astride,

Proceeding day and night to ride

Without repose, until the stag

Was overtaken by the nag.

When hi...