Talk:The Oak and the Reed

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synopsis[edit]

I wonder whether we should summarise the story, or even present it in full, before discussing interpretations. After all, all sorts of people will be consulting this, we hope, and many of them won't actually know the fable. With a microfiction like this, we wouldn't take up too much of their time or screen.

This one would do:

A very large Oak was uprooted by the wind and thrown across a stream. It fell among some Reeds, which it thus addressed: "I wonder how you, who are so light and weak, are not entirely crushed by these strong winds." They replied, "You fight and contend with the wind, and consequently you are destroyed; while we on the contrary bend before the least breath of air, and therefore remain unbroken, and escape."

This, from here: http://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/Aesop-The_Oak_and_the_Reeds.htm

I'm putting it here as a suggestion, rather than add it.--Annielogue (talk) 19:33, 6 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know how authentic the version that you quote is. In fact, no two seem the same in early sources. The best I can do is to send people to the relevant section of the Aesopica site.Mzilikazi1939 (talk) 23:06, 6 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Tao Te Ching[edit]

Maybe I first heard it here: http://www.wussu.com/laotzu/laotzu76.html

A man is born gentle and weak.

At his death he is hard and stiff.

Green plants are tender and filled with sap.

At their death they are withered and dry.

Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.

The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.

Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle.

A tree that is unbending is easily broken.

The hard and strong will fall.

The soft and weak will overcome.

not the fable, but.

I'll leave you to it now - can't be good to have someone watching over your shoulder! --Annielogue (talk) 20:26, 6 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for finding the origin of 'A tree that is unbending is easily broken', which I've seen quoted on sites as a Chinese proverb. I'll try and work it into the proverbs section.

I've discovered there's a certain overlap in some European sources (Steinhöwel, for instance) with the seperate fable of "The Pine and the Briar". That may be the next fable I have to deal with. Mzilikazi1939 (talk) 23:14, 6 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Cymbeline by Shakespeare[edit]

Perhaps this could be added to the section on songs. In the play Cymbeline by Shakespeare, there is a song usually called "fear no more the heat o' the sun" with the lines "Fear no more the frown o’ the great; Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke; Care no more to clothe and eat; To thee the reed is as the oak". I am not sure whether this could be counted as a reference to The Oak and The Reed. If anyone has thoughts, please share them Gandalf 1892 (talk) 05:42, 19 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Well spotted, Gandalf. But as you know, we'd need to find a scholar's comment as a source making that connection. Looking the article over, I notice that the fable was known in Shakespeare's time through its appearance in emblem books. Maybe that's the connection in his case? Sweetpool50 (talk) 08:54, 19 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]