La Cigale et la Fourmi: The Grasshopper and the Ant
The French are circulating a re make of this old fable.
I’ve translated a lighter version into English for your enjoyment.
You can practice your French by scrolling to the bottom!
American Version: The Ant and the Grasshopper
Ant works all summer during a heatwave
Builds a house and sets in provisions for winter.
Grasshopper thinks the ant is stupid, laughs, dances and plays.
Winter comes, ant is cold and well fed.
Grasshopper shivers with cold, doesn’t have any food or place to live, and dies in the cold.
The End
Version Francaise: La Cigale et la Fourmi
La Cigale et La Fourmi: French Version
Ant works all summer during a heatwave
Builds a house and sets in provisions for winter.
Grasshopper thinks the ant is stupid, laughs, dances and plays.
Winter comes, the ant is cold and well fed.
Grasshopper shivers with cold, organizes a press conference and demands to know why the ant has the right to be warm and well-fed while others who are less fortunate are cold and hungry.
French TV does prime time broadcasts showing grasshopper shivering with cold. Switch to videos of ant, warm at home, dining table laden with food.
The French are shocked that in a country so rich, one lets the poor grasshopper suffer while others live in abundance.
Demonstrations take place outside the ant’s house.
Headlines in French papers: Why did ant become rich on the back of the grasshopper? Demands that the government to raise taxes so ants pays his “fair share”.
Communist Trade Union and the Revolutionary Communist League organize sit ins outside the ant’s home.
France raises taxes; passes a law on economic anti-discrimination and equality, retroactive to last summer.
Ant fined because he didn’t employ the grasshopper as an assistant.
Ant can’t pay fine and higher taxes; house repossessed
Ant moves to Switzerland where he goes to work, pays taxes, contributes to the economy
French TV does a story on the grasshopper, now fat
House deteriorates and the French government is criticized for not maintaining it.
Grasshopper dies of an overdose.
Cockroaches take over, start dealing drugs from the house and terrorize the insect community.
FIN
Interesting insights by French ants on what socialism has done for France.
Version USA
La fourmi travaille dur tout l’été dans la canicule
Elle construit sa maison et prépare ses provisions pour l’hiver.
La cigale pense que la fourmi est stupide, elle rit, danse et joue
Une fois l’hiver venu, la fourmi est au chaud et bien nourrie.
La cigale grelottante de froid n’a ni nourriture ni abri, et meurt de
froid.
FIN
Version Francaise
La fourmi travaille dur tout l’été dans la canicule.
Elle construit sa maison et prépare ses provisions pour l’hiver.
La cigale pense que la fourmi est stupide, elle rit, danse et joue tout
l’été.
Une fois l’hiver venu, la fourmi est au chaud et bien nourrie.
La cigale grelottante de froid organise une conférence de presse et
demande pourquoi la fourmi a le droit d’être au chaud et bien nourrie tandis que
les autres, moins chanceux comme elle, ont froid et faim.
La télévision organise des émissions en direct qui montrent la cigale
grelottante de froid et qui passent des extraits vidéo de la fourmi
bien au chaud dans sa maison confortable avec une table pleine de provisions.
Les Français sont frappés que, dans un pays si riche, on laisse souffrir
cette pauvre cigale tandis que d’autres vivent dans l’abondance.
Les journalistes organisent des interviews, demandant pourquoi la
fourmi est devenue riche sur le dos de la cigale et interpellent le gouvernement
pour augmenter les impôts de la fourmi afin qu’elle paie ‘sa juste part’.
La CGT, Le Parti Communiste, la Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire, organisent seat-ins et manifestations devant la maison de la fourmi.
Les fonctionnaires décident de faire une grève de solidarité de 59
minutes par jour pour une durée illimitée.
En réponse aux sondages, le gouvernement rédige une loi sur l’égalité
économique et une loi (rétroactive à l’été) d’anti-discrimination.
Les impôts de la fourmi sont augmentés et la fourmi reçoit aussi une
amende pour ne pas avoir embauché la cigale comme aide.
La maison de la fourmi est préemptée par les autorités car la fourmi
n’a pas assez d’argent pour payer son amende et ses impôts.
La fourmi quitte la France pour s’installer en Suisse où elle
contribue à la richesse économique.
La télévision fait un reportage sur la cigale maintenant engraissée.
Elle est en train de finir les dernières provisions de la fourmi bien
que le printemps soit encore loin.
Des rassemblements d’artistes et d’écrivains de gauche, se tiennent
régulièrement dans la maison de la fourmi.
Le chanteur Renaud compose la chanson ‘Fourmi, barre-toi!’…
L’ancienne maison de la fourmi, devenue logement social pour la
cigale, se détériore ar cette dernière n’a rien fait pour l’entretenir.
Des reproches sont faits au gouvernement pour le manque de moyens.
Une commission d’enquête est mise en place, ce qui coûtera 10 millions
d’euros.
La cigale meurt d’une overdose.
La maison est squattée par un gang de cafards qui organisent un trafic de marijuana et terrorisent la communauté…
FIN
This is hysterical!!!! Thank you for the wonderful perspective!!
The ant and the grasshopper story was quite interesting in that I had just received an “Old” version and a “Modern” version last week from a friend. While similar, I thought you might appreciate some of the “American” humor and political overtones so I’m pasting it below.
I enjoy receiving your emails and hope to visit some of your fine properties.
Cheers,
San Diego California Subscriber
Dennis Birch
THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
This one is a little different… Two Different Versions…. Two Different Morals…
________________________________________
OLD VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away..
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!
*********************************
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’
ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his freeloading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2010..
Wonderful and I’m forwarding it to our French friends! Madelyn