Cross posted to Omir the Storyteller and Daily Kos
Good morning! Good morning! It’s another lovely Sunday, and welcome to Sunday Griot! Come, sit back, have a cup of soup. Soup? Soup? Yes, because soup is a central item of today’s story, The Fox And The Stork.
So at any rate, one day Fox decided he was going to invite Stork over for dinner. Fox prepared a well-chilled vichysoisse for his guest, who sat down to eat, only to discover that Fox was something of a trickster. He had placed the soup into a shallow bowl, and while he could easily lap the soup out of the bowl with his tongue, Stork was reduced to staring that the soup with a sad look on his face. His beak was far too long to be able to dip into the bowl, and he could no more drink the soup than you can scratch your ear with your elbow.
“What’s the matter?” Fox said, a big grin on his sly face. “I’m sorry if the soup isn’t to your liking.”
Stork, being a gracious guest, murmured some vague acquiescence,
Two or three days later Fox got an invitation from Stork to a dinner party at Stork’s house. Now Fox had been rather rude to Stork in his trick, but to not show up at Stork’s house after Stork had visited him would have been a major faux pas. So, Fox accepted the invitation and appeared on the designated night.
Stork’s house smelled delicious. He had spent the entire day preparing a vegetable consomme, and Fox’s mouth watered. Imagine Fox’s surprise, then , when Stork appeared with two large glasses full of consomme, like champagne flutes but much longer. Just the right length, in fact, for Stork to put his beak into the glass and drink the consomme, almost like sipping through a straw. Fox of course was left to just look and smell, since he couldn’t even get his snout into the glass.
“What’s the matter?” Stork asked, a look of mock concern on his face. “Oh, I’m sorry if the soup isn’t to your liking. But, I won’t apologize for the dinner.”
What goes around comes around.
This week I went back to Aesop. Not because I’m lazy, although I am that and then some. I’d been thinking about this story for a long time, what with the debate on the so-called “nuclear option” and all. I write these stories to promote progressive values, but today’s story is also aimed at Republicans in the Senate who want to push the big red button, not that they pay the slightest bit of attention to me. Maybe they’ll be able to push through their agenda if they do; maybe not. But someday the Republicans won’t be a majority in the Senate any more, and if the Republicans succeed in cutting off filibusters by a simple majority vote, they won’t be able to use the filibuster when the Democrats are in charge.
In researching this story last night I found a couple of different morals attached to it. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is a popular one. “One bad turn deserves another” was another, although I’m not crazy about that one. I was originally going to use “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.” It’s a fine old expression, dating as far as I can tell back to Shakespeare’s time or earlier. (One can never be sure about these things.) But, I ultimately chose “What goes around comes around” because I think it fits the story best. It’s the Law of Karma. Not “karma” in the Buddhist sense, but karma as most Westerners think of it: As you sow, so shall you reap. You get what you deserve.
Thank you for coming by! I’m always happy to see you, and if you liked the story, please say hello. And as always, happy stories until next week.
cup of fresh ground Guatemalan Dark and Griot…Mighty fine!
Not being a coffee drinker myself, I can only hope the coffee goes well with the soup. 🙂
Omir… I love the stories. With your flair for invention you could probably write some great ones just based on Spanish proverbs alone
“A cada puerco llega su San Martin”
“A rey muerto, un puesto”
“Comer hasta enfermar y ayunar hasta sanar”
“Dame pan y dime tonto”
“El que se fue a Sevilla, perdio su silla”
“Muerto el perro, se acabo la rabia”
And one of my all-time favorites:
“El mejor es no hacer nada y luego descansar”
Pax
I’ll have to head over to Babelfish to get some rough translations. Then, off to do some research on the stories behind them. I like the idea of adapting stories from other languages and cultures — sometimes they have a different take on the world that can be enlightening to us insular Americans.
Thank you, Soj. May I say I enjoy your writing and appreciate your comments.
oh gosh sometimes i forget… ok here we go
“A cada puerco llega su San Martin” (literally “every pig has his San Martin” which is an old holiday where pigs were slaughtered meaning everyone gets theirs in the end)
“A rey muerto, un puesto” (literally “as soon as one king dead, another one comes to replace him”)
“Comer hasta enfermar y ayunar hasta sanar” (literally “eat until you get sick and fast until you are healthy”
“Dame pan y dime tonto” (literally “give me bread and tell me foolishness” )
“El que se fue a Sevilla, perdio su silla” (literally “he who went to Sevilla lost his chair” meaning move your feet lose ur seat)
“Muerto el perro, se acabo la rabia” (literally “if you kill the dog it will destroy the madness”)
And one of my all-time favorites:
“El mejor es no hacer nada y luego descansar” (literally “the best thing in life is to do nothing and afterwards take a nap”)
Sorry!
Pax
and those are great sayings. Makes me wish I still had a copy of Zamenhof’s Proverbaro, a collection of proverbs that was one of the early documents in Esperanto. Most had recognizable English equivalents, if I remember coorectly, but there were some that either weren’t well known or don’t exist in English. Maybe there’s a copy out on the Net somewhere.
Thanks again for these! I’ll have to go see if I can research them further.
I don’t pretend to understand them; I’m just curious if the translation is right. It’s a combination of Babelfish and guesswork on my part.
Every pig meets its own St. Martin
When the king dies, a job vacancy opens up.
Eat ’til you’re sick, then rest (ayunar?) ’til you’re better
Give me bread and call me an idiot
The one who went to Seville lost his chair
When the dog dies, the madness ends
The best thing in the world is to do nothing and then rest up from it
Am I close? I’m sure they make more sense in Spanish.
Thank you Omir, mighty good soup!
< shuffles off looking for a crust of bread >
Mmmmmmm . . . Woodland Park Zoo serves clam chowder in a hollowed-out loaf of sourdough. It costs over $7 but I think of any food I buy at the zoo as a donation with an edible premium rather than “I could buy this at the mall for $3.50.”
Thanks, Emma. Nice to see you!
And if you’d like a salad with that, may I recommend the little buttercrunch head lettuce scooped out and filled with the ingredients of your choice?
I just ate breakfast and now you’ve got me hungry again!!
That’s a great idea, I may try that if we ever throw a fancy dinner.