As a mouse ran over a sleeping lion, the lion awoke and grabbed her.
"Let me go, please!" squeaked the mouse. "I'll repay your kindness, I promise!"
"What could you ever do for me?" scoffed the lion. "I'm letting you go only because it's not worth my time to kill you."
A few days later, the lion was caught in a hunter's snare. He roared in terror, and the little mouse ran to the rescue, gnawing through the ropes and freeing the lion.
"I was wrong about you," said the grateful lion. "You're a good friend to have after all."
Inspired by: Mille Fabulae et Una, a collection of Latin fables that I've edited, free to read online. I am not translating the Latin here; instead, I am just telling a 100-word version of the fable.
Notes: This is fable 208 in the book, which is Perry 150.
"True Penance"
ReplyDelete-by hardy parkerson
Latin is a language
As hard as it can be;
You can speak it to your neighbor,
You can speak it to a tree.
Neither will understand you,
No, not in the least;
That is, unless your neighbor
Is a Roman Catholic priest.
Then you can tell him, "MEA CULPA,
MEA CULPA, MEA MAIXMA CUPLA!":
That Latin confessional sentence;
And he'll tell you go and sin no more
And read some Latin as your penance.
When I quote this to a LA priest,
they always seem to like it. s/Hardy P.