Meaningful Fable : "One Cicada, Neighbor Ant" (Jean de la Fontaine)

One Cicada having sung

Summer long,

Felt into deep lacking state

When fresh days did reach the gate :

Not even a little chip

Of slight lens nor candle snip.

She spread a word as she'd starve

Front close ant's door, place to carve,

Urging her to lend her fast

A few grain so she could last

Until the resumption clime.

« I will redeem you, no mime,

Fore harvest - she said crucial -

Interest ands principal. »

Neighbor Ant feared this gamble :

There lays her marginal fault.

« How did you spend neath heat vault ?

She said this risk's guest - rumble.

— Dark and day, forward comer

I did declaim, for your care.

— You did declaim ? So good fare :

Thus ! Yet, you might dance further. »

(personal translation of the La Fontaine's fable)

"La Cigale et la Fourmi" is a fable from French author Jean de La Fontaine, born four centuries ago - first in collection of his book(s) "Les Fables".

This short text is one of the most shared in French language - for instance it is more well-known than any excerpt from the Bible nor the Qur'an. It has inspired thousands, millions, probably even billions of caricatures through times and all over the world.

Here the original French story (with modernized case) :

La cigale ayant chanté

Tout l’été,

Se trouva fort dépourvue

Quand la bise fut venue :

Pas un seul petit morceau

De mouche ou de vermisseau.

Elle alla crier famine

Chez la fourmi sa voisine,

La priant de lui prêter

Quelque grain pour subsister

Jusqu’à la saison nouvelle.

« Je vous paierai, lui dit-elle,

Avant l’août, foi d’animal,

Intérêt et principal. »

La fourmi n’est pas prêteuse :

C’est là son moindre défaut.

« Que faisiez-vous au temps chaud ?

Dit-elle à cette emprunteuse.

— Nuit et jour à tout venant

Je chantais, ne vous déplaise.

— Vous chantiez ? J’en suis fort aise :

Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant. »

Before exploring some meanings of this fabulous story, lets see a first caricature (when TV shows weren't highly quality kept) :

"La cicrane et la froumi", caricature version by duo of comedians "Pit et Rik" (Frédéric Bodson & Michel Saillard), 1981 - with lyrics here

I] Some key points for translation

Would you prefer to be spending cicada or precocious ant ?

That's a common say in French. That surely has helped to structure the bank industry.

First thing to say about the La Fontaine's story is its form. It is a story - right! - but also a poem with rhythm and rhymes. For most French people, a fable must be a short story - a tale with animals - with a shape really close to regular poetry (so with rhythm and rhymes). If not, it could be a fairytale - but not a fable. So there is no way to translate it without trying to keep the original shape.

What you read upper (that is one personal translation) tried to restitute the story, some of its meanings ; but also the exact rhythm and the regime of rhymes. With respect with the gender of rhymes - that differs from the gender of words (for instance the feminine noun "la stupeur" ("the fear") gives a masculine rhyme when placed at a verse ending).

Jean de La Fontaine was inspired by a poem - more probably a bunch of writings - from the long Aesop tradition (as much complex as the Arthurian tradition). Before him, we know at least one English poetic version has existed - I'll share it beneath. Today, I won't say a word about his particular relationship with Fouquet (who's that ?). However, he lived at a period of structuration of both candle and glass industry - that issued the Compagnie de Saint Gobain group (half-hundred a billion dollars sells per year, worldwide).

Uh! One more thing to say! I used the feminine for both the Cicada and the Ant, as in La Fontaine's story. That might be not neutral at all from him, in a time dancers were mainly men (it would have become woman later).

1) Financials

Interest ands principal

The -s I put to the ands of this verse might seem strange. And it should.

However, you have to know the La Fontaine story was at first place to be told. It was transmitted by oral tradition - as nowadays do the griots, great storytellers among all poets (Senegal, Mali, ...). Even for the La Fontaine's version, it took place in a writing shape only after years (or decades). So, part of the meaning is hidden into the way of pronouncing words. Thus, we have to care of how words are pronounced both in French and English, to be able to restitute its richness.

In the French version, "Intérêt et principal" means literately "Interest and principal (of a loan)". But it is close to "Intérêt est principal" - at a small and common accent approximation - that means "Interest is/hands principal". So to restitute that double meaning, I used these alterations with h- and -s. Plus, it appears "to and" is a verb meaning something as "to wind/to blast". To conclude about this verse, it opened a lecture where the cicada is proposing a huge abnormal stuff to the ant.

But the gate of financials simply starts to move on with that ending opening - it starts at the end of the story.

Words as "prêter", "paierai", "prêteuse", "défaut", "emprunteuse", "aise" - "lend", "(will) pay (back)", "lender", "default", "borrower", "wealthy" - explicitly mentioned the bank universe and the financial industry.

Something odd is the wording "moindre défaut" ("least default/marginal fault") - suggesting the ant has something notably bigger to hide as a default. As a bank lending money it doesn't have, for instance. Or a failed compagny.

2) Penuries, Duties, ... and Predations

Tout l’été,

What does mean that sentence ?

At first glance, we could think "été" refers to the summer season. And surely it does ; as you know cicadas ("singing animals" in the root sense) live long as larvae or nymphs - it could exceed 10 years - and at most three halves of month as an adult (the one with wings) dring harvest time.

But "été" is also the past participle tense for the "to be" verb. Suggesting the cicada of the fable has been, and would soon disappear. It's tricky, isn't it ? And it's cruel ! As you know, ants are really smaller than cicadas (10, 20, 50, ..., times). Nevertheless they live is group, with complex interactions, and sometimes eat (or at least kill) few ... cicadas. Maybe to transform it into a delight fourme, a long shelf life cheese made with waited tomme.

Lets see another tricky verse :

De mouche ou de vermisseau

Thus, it appears this verse say "of fly or of tiny worm". Hence, it sounds also like :

De mou chou, de vermisseau

or even as (one "m" sound becoming an "n") :

De mou chou, de verni sceau.

"Mou chou" means something as "soft matter" ; and "verni sceau" means "varnished seal".

In fact, it would be very strange to trust the author wrote words with exact spelling. Mainly because a cicada would never eat meat, but plant sap.

I didn't look at lots of French commentaries over this verse ; nevertheless I guess La Fontaine led us to consider one - or several other perspectives.

So, with "mou chou" we keep the exact pronouncing - meaning this option should be considered. Then, someone - that could be both the cicada or the ant - seems to lack small pieces of soft matter, and something else. That something could be a tiny (cicada?) worm - it would be great for the ant.

That something could also be a seal - echoing the way to valid contracts (finance, ...). It could too be a "tiny green thing" - great for the cicada - or many other things as "bit of glass".

One prank with this talk is "vermisseau" literally means "small worm". And there are echos between all words sharing the same pronunciation with "ver(=worm)" : "verre(=glass)", "vert(=green)", "vers(=verse)", "vair(=mop/fur)". Plus those with the rhyme in "-(ss/c)eau" : "saut(=hop)", "seau(=bucket)", "sceau(=seal)", "sot(=stupid)".

A reflection that calls a new way to look at the verse :

Pas un seul petit morceau

This verse ("not a lonely small piece of [something to be discribed]") sounds like :

Pas un seul petit mort sot,

that means "not a solitary little foolish dead".

To make it clear : it seems both the cicada and the ant are angrily hungry. So the vegetarian cicada looks everywhere something to eat. As ants are gathering, they should have food (grains) to share. But they don't. Except this coming prey. So, one ant, plus another, plus many fellows meet with the cicada to make her dance with her last dance - turning her into a piece of meat.

A brief respiration with a multicultural interpretation inspired by the fable (between one oil-lender/space-borrower and its oil-borrower/space-lender cousin Countries) :

Adapted adaptation of the fable by Pierre Péchin, between French and Algerian cultures, possibly 1975

3) And the Bourse ?

J’en suis fort aise

With only one spot for one space in difference (exactly same pronunciation) - looks like :

J’en suis for taise

First sentence means something as "I am highly luckily wealthy, with it".

Second - more complex and more unusual - would mean something as "I am with it, forum silence". Or maybe "I follow with (that) forum quietness". Because "suis" is both a conjugation form for verbs "être (=to be)" and "suivre (=to follow)".

With today's eyes, this sentence was probably an invitation to seek under stock markets and fora speculation. And to show it needs strength to not follow the path from other when investing.

4) To conclude

Jean de La Fontaine wrote a very tricky story, that went through ages.

With a funny way to say things, that story spares neither the borrower nor the lender of a loan. Neither the requester nor the banker. Neither the predator nor the prey. Plus it suggests the responsibility of public - of all the publics.

For that particular fable, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was non-neutral and wrote it shouldn't be learned by young children. Because it is too much complicated. Maybe he had missed the forum part of it ...

A child tale without storytelling with the help of children would be very sad. To correct it :

One singing version by Pierre Perret and chorus, 1995

II] Some other versions of the Fable (Aesop or La Fontaine)

(precision : before strong agricultural exchanges between Britain and the continent, cicada wasn't well-known in Britain. so people said a "cicada" was the same as a "grasshopper". when it is said a cicada sings, it could be louder than car traffic - nearly as noisy as a space rocket)

Following versions are given "as it" with respective web sources (either original or intermediate). So you can compare. Complete texts are given for those before 1750, or for those with free copyrights, or in case the quoted content doesn't exceed 1% of the original piece of work - only partial quotation for the other texts.

v01) THE CICADA AND ANT (I,1)

Source : http://www.la-fontaine-ch-thierry.net/onegramu.htm

Root source : http://www.la-fontaine-ch-thierry.net/fablanglais1.htm

The gay cicada, full of song

All the sunny season long,

Was unprovided and brought low,

When the north wind began to blow ;

Had not a scrap of worm or fly,

Hunger and want began to cry ;

Never was creature more perplexed.

She called upon her neighbour ant,

And humbly prayed her just to grant

Some grain till August next ;

“I'll pay, ” she said, “what ye invest,

Both principal and interest,

Honour of insects –and that's tender. ”

The ant, however, is no lender ;

That is her least defective side ;

“But, hark ye, pray, Miss Borrower, ” she cried,

“What were ye doing in fine weather ? ”

“ Singing . . . nay,! look not thus askance,

To every comer day and night together. ”

“ Singing ! I'm glad of that ; why now then dance. ”

v02) The Cicada and the Ant (with Sylvain Mergui)

Only beginning and ending excerpts

Source : https://lafontaine-musical.com/the-cicada-and-the-ant.html

The Cicada, having sung

All summer long,

Found herself short of everything

When the north wind came.

(...)

-You were singing? I couldn't be more pleased

Well! Dance now.

v03) The Grasshopper and The Ant (W. T. Larned)

Only beginning and ending excerpts

Source : https://www.mamalisa.com/blog/the-grasshopper-and-the-ant-jean-de-la-fontaine-fable-in-french-and-english/

The Grasshopper, singing

All summer long,

Now found winter stinging,

And ceased in his song.

Not a morsel or crumb in his cupboard–

So he shivered, and ceased in his song.

(...)

Now it’s winter–go dance for your bread!”

v04) The Ants and the Grasshopper (Ambrose Bierce, 1899)

Source : D. L. Ashliman,

https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type0280a.html

Some members of a legislature were making schedules of their wealth at the end of the session, when an honest miner came along and asked them to divide with him.

The members of the legislature inquired: "Why did you not acquire property of your own?"

" Because," replied the honest miner, "I was so busy digging out gold that I had no leisure to lay up something worth while."

Then the members of the legislature derided him, saying: "If you waste your time in profitless amusement, you cannot, of course, expect to share the rewards of industry."

(note : this represents less of 1% of the original book it comes from)

v05) The Ants and the Grasshopper (Ambrose Bierce, 1899)

Source : D. L. Ashliman,

https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type0280a.html

One day in winter a hungry grasshopper applied to an ant for some of the food which they had stored.

"Why," said the ant, "did you not store up some food for yourself, instead of singing all the time?"

"So I did," said the grasshopper. "So I did; but you fellows broke in and carried it all away."

(note : this represents less of 1% of the original book it comes from)

v06) An Ant and a Grasshopper (L'Estrange, Anianus, 1692)

Source : D. L. Ashliman,

https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type0280a.html

As the ants were airing their provisions one winter, up comes a hungry grasshopper to 'em, and begs a charity. They told him that he should have wrought in summer, if he would not have wanted in winter.

"Well," says the grasshopper, "but I was not idle neither; for I sung out the whole season."

"Nay then," said they, "you shall e'en do well to make a merry year on't, and dance in winter to the tune that you sung in summer."

The moral:

A life of sloth is the life of a brute; but action and industry is the bus'ness of a great, a wife, and a good man.

Reflexion:

Here's a reproof to men of sensuality, and pleasure. The moral preaches industry, and beats down sloth, and shews that after-wit is nothing worth. It must be an industrious youth that provides against the inconveniencies, and necessities of old age; and he that fools away the one, must either beg or starve in the other.

"Go to the ant thou sluggard," says the wise-man, which in few words summs up the moral of this fable.

'Tis hard to say of laziness, or luxury, whether it be the more scandalous, or the more dangerous evil. The very soul of the slothful, does effectually but lie drowzing in his body, and the whole man is totally given up to his senses: whereas the profit and the comfort of industry, is substantial, firm, and lasting; the blessings of security and plenty go along with it, and it is never out of season.

What's the grasshopper's entertainment now, but a summer's song? A vain and an empty pleasure?

Let it be understood, however, that we are not to pass avarice upon the world under the title of good husbandry, and thrift, and under that cover to extinguish charity by not distributing the fruits of it. We are in the first place, to consult our own necessities, but we are then to consider in the second place that the necessities of our neighbours have a Christian right to a part of what we have to spare. For the common offices of humanity are as much duties of self-preservation, as what every individual contributes to its own well-being. It is, in short, the great interest and obligation of particulars, to advance the good of the community.

The stress of this moral lies upon the preference of honest labour to idleness; and the refusal of relief, on the one hand, is intended only for a reproof to the inconsiderate loss of opportunity on the other. This does not hinder yet, but that the ants, out of their abundance, ought to have reliev'd the grasshopper in her distress, though 'twas her own fault that brought her to't. For if one man's faults could discharge another man of his duty, there would be no longer any place left for the common offices of society.

To conclude, we have our failings, every mother's child of us, and the improvidence of my neighbour must not make me inhumane. The ant did well to reprove the grasshopper for her slothfulness; but she did ill then to refuse her a charity in her distress.

(note : original content could be consult on Internet Archive)

v07) The Ant and the Grasshopper

Only beginning and ending excerpts

Source : BBC Teach, School Radio section,https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/audio-stories-the-ant-and-the-grasshopper/zv88cqt

One hot summer’s day a Grasshopper sat on a blade of grass enjoying the sunshine.

‘What a fine day,’ he said. ‘The sun’s shining and I’ve got as much grass as I can eat.’

The Grasshopper spent the whole morning stuffing his face until he couldn’t eat another thing.

‘Right,’ he said. ‘Now I’ll make some music.’

He rubbed his back legs against his wings and made a loud buzzing sound.

‘Lovely,’ said the Grasshopper. ‘Nothing better than the sound of a happy Grasshopper.’

(...)

‘Not so much to eat now is there,’ said the Grasshopper.

‘We’ve got plenty,’ said the Ant. ‘Our store rooms are full of seeds and corn. Got loads of food. Enough to see us safely through to spring.’

‘Loads of food, eh?’ said the Grasshopper. ‘Look...mate...I don’t suppose I could...? I don’t suppose you’d be able to give me...?’

‘You said you’d never seen a more silly creature than an Ant,’ said the Ant.

‘I didn’t mean that,’ said the Grasshopper. ‘That was just a joke. Oh, come on. Just a couple of ears of corn. You can spare it. I’ve got nothing.’

‘Sorry...mate,’ said the Ant. ‘If you save up on the days when you have plenty then there’ll never be a day when you have nothing.’

The Ant hurried down into his warm nest knowing that he’d never ever see that Grasshopper again.

After a singing performance of the tale, now a dancing one :

Dance is not far from that fable - see this freely inspired dancing interpretation (here : Sursaut Dance Compagny, 2013)

v08) The Ants & the Grasshopper

Only beginning and ending excerpts

Source : read.gov/aesop/052.html

One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.

(...)

There's a time for work and a time for play.

v09) The Ant and the Grasshopper (a new version, Miranda Xafa, 2019)

Only beginning and ending excerpts

Source : https://www.ekathimerini.com/opinion/241935/the-ant-and-the-grasshopper-a-new-version/

We all know Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and gathering supplies for winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool to work so hard while he sings the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed in his home, while the grasshopper goes hungry and dies of cold. The moral is, of course, work hard and plan for the future.

Here’s a new version of the old tale. It starts pretty much the same, but read on and you’ll find that it’s very contemporary. The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and gathering supplies for winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant [...]

[...] The house is near collapse due to lack of maintenance. A few months later, the grasshopper is found dead in a drug-related incident at Pedion tou Areos park.

The moral of the story is: Vote responsibly!

v10) The Fable of the Ant and of the Sygalle (William Caxton, 1484)

Source : D. L. Ashliman,

https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type0280a.html

It is good to purveye him self in the somer season of such thynges / wherof he shall myster and have nede in wynter season / As thow mayst see by this present fable / of the sygalle / whiche in the wynter tyme went and demaunded of the ant somme of her Corne for to ete /

And thenne the ant sayd to the sygall / what hast thow done al the somer last passed / And the sygalle ansuerd / I have songe /

And after sayd the ante to her / of my corne shallt not thou nonef have / and yf thow hast songe alle the somer / danse now in wynter /

And therfore there is one tyme for to doo some labour and werk / And one tyme for to have rest / For he that werketh not he doth no good / shal have ofte at his teeth grete cold and lacke at his nede /

(note : original content could be consult on Internet Archive)

And I won't end my Vocal story without an English singing :

A CoComelon version of the fable (Credits : Treasure Studio, Inc)

The little work I'm sharing you was harder than expected. May I ask for a chip tip ; or even hope a hop for pledge ?

I have much more to say about this author (La Fontaine) and his arts. If you want to learn some more without leaving Vocal, I'd be really encouraged by number of reads. So, go to share (h)it !