Persian Fables
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Authors
Forman, Bedřich
Forman, Werner
Theiner, George
Vladislav, Jan
Issue Date
1950? , 1950
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
This sideways book contains a short introductory narrative, thirty-three fables, a note on the history of the texts and illustrations, T of C, and a very short bibliography. The introductory narrative has a new king surveying personnel ask the story-teller what use he is. He responds immediately by recalling Dabzhelim's mistaken rejection of Bidpai. The typical fable-introducing scheme involves a statement You are just like . . . in the fable followed by the question What fable? The connecting narrative (in gray as opposed to the fables' black) is thin, and there are no fables within fables. Story #9 is funny and gory. Many fables here are told in different fashion from the one I have known. Thus the jackal in #3 leads King Lion to the mirroring well, and a jackal gets crushed between two charging boars in #5. #12 substitutes a jackal for the fox and a donkey for the deer in the story of The Deer Without Brains. It substitutes a she-donkey for the attempted embrace explanation to bring the donkey back a second time. I am surprised to find The Gardener and the Bear (#15) here. #18 uses a quail and a hare for the litigants devoured by the cat-judge. #21 has one unnamed jackal, not Kalila and Dimna. The guilty jackal replaces the dead bull without punishment. #29 presents a goose who sees the moon's reflection in the water, thinks it a fish, gets frustrated trying to catch the fish, and gives up all fishing. In #30, it is a she-monkey's tail that is caught in the now wedgeless log. In #31 a jackal gets the lion hiding in his cave to answer as the cave and so to reveal his presence. A wise man asks even the cave.
Description
Citation
Publisher
Spring Books: Spring House
License
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DOI
Identifier
1550 (Access ID)