A FABLE OF AESOP

 

                A FABLE OF AESOP

                        A fable is defined as: a short fictional story that teaches an eternal life lesson or a moral. Its characters  are mostly animals possessing human wisdom.  

                        Aesop (c.620-564 BCE) was an ancient Greek fabulist and story teller. There are many fables attributed to him. They have been translated into several languages of the world. The wisdom presented by them is everlasting.

            Some of Aesop’s  famous fables are :

            Sour Grapes, Dead Men Tell No Tales, Look Before You Leap, Tit For Tat, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Fox and the Grapes, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and Breach of Promise.

                        The title of the fable which is quoted below is: The Punishment Of Selfishness”. It is translated into English by Stanley Alexander Handford (1898-1978) who was a British classicist.

                        The full text of the aforesaid fable  follows.

            “A horse and an ass were on a journey with their master. ‘Take a share of my load,’ said the ass to the horse, ‘if you want to save my life.’

            “But the horse would not, and the ass, worn out with fatigue, fell down and died.”

            “Their master then put the whole load on the horse’s back, and the ass’s hide into the bargain. The horse began to groan and set up a piteous lament. ‘Alas,’ he cried, ‘what misery have I let myself in for! I would not take a light load, and now look at me: I have to carry everything, hide and all.”

The moral of this fable is that the strong should help the weak, so shall the lives of both be preserved.

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G.R. Kanwal

16 October 2026