Daily Aesop's Fables:

The Lark and Her Young Ones


A LARK had made her nest in the early spring on the young green
wheat. The brood had almost grown to their full strength and
attained the use of their wings and the full plumage of their
feathers, when the owner of the field, looking over his ripe
crop, said, "The time has come when I must ask all my neighbors
to help me with my harvest." One of the young Larks heard his
speech and related it to his mother, inquiring of her to what
place they should move for safety. "There is no occasion to move
yet, my son," she replied, "the man who only sends to his friends
to help him with his harvest is not really in earnest."

The owner of the field came again a few days later and saw the wheat
shedding the grain from excess of ripeness. He said, "I will
come myself tomorrow with my laborers, and with as many reapers
as I can hire and will get in the harvest." The Lark on hearing
these words said to her brood, "It is time now to be off, my
little ones, for the man is in earnest this time; he no longer
trusts his friends but will reap the field himself."


~ Self-help is the best help. ~

Daily Aesop's Fables:

The Man and His Two Sweethearts


A MIDDLE-AGED MAN, whose hair had begun to turn gray, courted two
women at the same time. One of them was young, and the other
well advanced in years. The elder woman, ashamed to be courted
by a man younger than herself, made a point, whenever her admirer
visited her, to pull out some portion of his black hairs. The
younger, on the contrary, not wishing to become the wife of an
old man, was equally zealous in removing every gray hair she
could find. Thus it came to pass that between them both he very
soon found that he had not a hair left on his head.


~ Those who seek to please everybody please nobody. ~

Kırlangıç - Lord Neberius'a

Kırlangıçlar gördüm gölün kıyısında,
Soğuk düşünce vakit, göçtüler uzağıma
Şimdi bir başka ufukta erken doğar güneş,
Yazımı yeşerten ışık düşer gri duvarlarıma,
Beton susar, yeşilim konuşur kırağa.

Seni düşündüm; nergisler soldu içimde,
Deniz çekildi, dalgalar vurdu göğsüme.
Hayalin bir akşam indi gözlerime,
Göğe baktım uzun uzun, aynı maviye
Belki sen de bakarsın diye.

Ölülerin sessizliğinde sürdüm adını gönlüme,
Sende aynı toprağa basarsın diye.
Rüzgar adını fısıldadı karanlıkta,
Ben seni gökten, topraktan, sudan
Bir ömür sakladım yarınlara.

Yarınlar hayalinin içinde erirken,
Denizleri aşan kırlangıçlar kondu dallarıma.
Her kanat çırpışı bir hatıra bıraktı,
Tünek kalbimde çoğaldın,
Sessizliğin büyüdü zamanla.

Coşkun bir dere gibi aktı içim,
Sonbaharım ürpertti sarı yaprakları.
Camda dağıldı yağmur damlalarım
Bir köşe hanın loş akşamında
Adın yazıldı buğulu camlarıma.

Şimdi bir başka ufukta erken doğar güneş,
Işık içime dolup geceleri unutturur.
Sevinci serer avuçlarıma sabah rüzgarı,
Neşe usulca yerleşir kalbimin kıyısına,
Gülüşüm günle birlikte çoğalır,
Kırlangıçlar gördüm gölün kıyısında,

-Aleksios

Daily Aesop's Fables:

The Peacock and Juno


A Peacock once placed a petition before Juno desiring to have
the voice of a nightingale in addition to his other attractions;
but Juno refused his request. When he persisted, and pointed out
that he was her favorite bird, she said:


~ "Be content with your lot;
one cannot be first in everything." ~

Daily Aesop's Fables:

The Oak and Jupiter/The Oak and the woodcutter

THE OAKS presented a complaint to Jupiter, saying, "We bear for
no purpose the burden of life, as of all the trees that grow we
are the most continually in peril of the axe." Jupiter made
answer: "You have only to thank yourselves for the misfortunes to
which you are exposed: for if you did not make such excellent
pillars and posts, and prove yourselves so serviceable to the
carpenters and the farmers, the axe would not so frequently be
laid to your roots."

THE WOODCUTTER cut down a Mountain Oak and split it in pieces,
making wedges of its own branches for dividing the trunk. The
Oak said with a sigh, "I do not care about the blows of the axe
aimed at my roots, but I do grieve at being torn in pieces by
these wedges made from my own branches."

~ Misfortunes springing from ourselves are the hardest to bear. ~