My favorite tale is a fable of Jean de la Fontaine. It is one that my grandmother used to read to me. The title is “La cigale et la fourmie”. In English it would translate “The Cicada and the Ant”.
The ant worked all summer to stock up on provisions while the cicada was singing. At the beginning of winter, the cicada asked the ant if she could lend her food. The ant then replied “what did you do this summer”? The cicada answered “I was singing”. The ant then said “Well, now you can dance”!
The moral of this tale is simple. I think it means that you must only rely on yourself and not to wait at the last moment to do the important things.
This sounds like a story called "The Grasshopper and the Ant", where the grasshopper plays all summer and the ant works to prepare food for the winter. The moral is the same.
ReplyDeleteCorrections: "...and not wait until the last minute to do important things."
Lool !! this one is very funny !! I never read the book but I've already seen the movie ( cartoons) :)
ReplyDelete“The Cicada and the Ant” is actually an Aesop's fable.
ReplyDeleteLike most of La Fontaine's fables, "La Cigale et la Fourmi” is not a story that he invented. Drawing inspiration from oral traditions and the fables of Aesop and other poets of Greek and Roman antiquity La Fontaine changes the classic fable by omitting the moral. Why?