Aesop's Phrases

The Spendthrift and the Swallow. 240 by Townsend

A YOUNG MAN, a great spendthrift, had run through all his patrimony and had but one good cloak left. One day he happened to see a Swallow, which had appeared before its season, skimming along a pool and twittering gaily. He supposed that summer had come, and went and sold his cloak. Not many days later, winter set in again with renewed frost and cold. When he found the unfortunate Swallow lifeless on the ground, he said, "Unhappy bird! what have you done? By thus appearing before the springtime you have not only killed yourself, but you have wrought my destruction also."

Pe169=Ch248, Ba131, L'Es126, Kry7.4. CS122, TMI J731.1
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Cf. Exodus 22. 26-27
26 If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset, 27 because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

The Swallow and the Crow. 24 by Townsend

THE SWALLOW and the Crow had a contention about their plumage. The Crow put an end to the dispute by saying, "Your feathers are all very well in the spring, but mine protect me against the winter."
Fair weather friends are not worth much.

Pe229=Ch348, L'Es159, CS76, TMI J242.6

quotation from FABLES OF AESOP by S.A. HANDFORD, Penguin Classics

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SPRINGTIME AND WINTER

Winter scoffed tauntingly at Spring. "When you appear," he said, 'no one stays still a moment longer. Some are off to meadows or woods: they must needs be picking lilies and other flowers, twiddling roses round in their fingers to examine them, or sticking them in their hair. Ohters go on board ship and cross the wide ocean, maybe, to visit men of other lands; and not a man troubles himself any more about gales or downpours of rain. Now I am like a ruler or dictator. I bid men look not up to the sky but down to the earth with fear and trembling, and sometimes they have to resign themselves to staying indoors all day.' 'Yes,' replied Spring, 'and therefore men would gladly be rid of you. But with me it is different. They think my name very lovely - yes, by Zeus, the loveliest name of all names. When I am absent they cherish my memory, and when I reappear they are full of rejoicing.'

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Pe271=Ch346

quotation from "VISNU SARMA The Pancatantra" translated by Chandra Rajan, Penguin Classics.

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Pancatantra 5.(4)

Day by day the wisdom even of the wise
wanes chipped away by constant household worries,
as the beauty of the season of dews pales
touched by the breath of Spring's warming breezes.

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In the tropical countries, they seem to prefer winter to spring.