本书为“世界寓言精选”（英汉读本）中的一本。寓言是当今文学作品中最不可思议的一种体裁。它往往是利用一个饶有趣味的故事，来说明深刻的道理：它在激情中闪烁着理性的智慧光芒，在讽喻中又不乏幽默和情趣。通过这些寓意深长的故事，它能让你多侧面、多视角地去认识世界，认识社会，认识人生……本书，异彩缤纷的寓言故事，就会像流云一样，把你带到那精彩而又生动的故事世界里去。书中的每一个故事都附有插图，逼真生动，可谓图文并茂。对青少年而言具有启迪思维，体会人生哲理与丰富学识的积极作用。

《世界寓言经典丛书》概括了世界各国著名的寓言故事，其中有些寓言甚至可追溯到2500年前。

丛书中的寓言故事蕴涵着丰富的人生哲理与深刻的生活经验。这些故事都闪烁着璀璨的智慧光芒。它们有助于启迪思维、激发创造潜能，同时对认识人生世相、明辨是非及体认人性的尊严与生命的真谛，也能发挥启发性的积极作用。

本丛书共l0本，总共收录了来自50多个国家及地区的逾500个精彩的寓言故事。每个故事都寄寓着不朽的道德价值与生活理念。

1 The Cat's Judgement

 雄猫的判决

2 The Crow and the Buffalo

 乌鸦和水牛

3 The Magician and the Tax 0fficer

 魔术师和税务官

4 A Colou red Wolf

 变色狼

5 The Foresight of a Swan

 天鹅的远见

6 The Cuckoo and the Falcon

 懒杜鹃的下场

7 When the Birds Chose the Owl as King

 委任众鸟之王

8 The Frogs That Rode on the Snake's Back

 青蛙骑在蛇背上

9 The Most Fragrant Rice

 最香的饭

10 The Monkey's Tears

 猴子的眼泪

11 Smart，the Jackal

  诡计多端的豺狗

12 The Rabbit Makes a Fool Offhe EIePhant

  免子愚弄大象

13 A Proper Bath

  不洗澡的祭司

14 Tile Wa rrior's Horse and the Donkey

 武士的马和瘦驴

15 The Plover That Fought the Ocean

 鹆鸟挑战海洋

16 The Bharunda Birds

 巴伦达双头鸟

17 The Beggars' Meeting

 乞丐的会议

18 The King Goes to Heaven

 国王上天堂

19 The Wild Goose and the Ruby

 雄雁和红宝石

20 The JackaI and the War Drum

 豺狗和战鼓

21 The JackaI and the Monkey

 豺和猴

22 The Tiger，the Monkey and the Ants

 老虎、猴子和蚂蚁

23 The Porcupine and the Elephant

 豪猪与大象

24 The Bamboo Snake

 竹蛇

25 The Arroqant OWl

 不自量力的猫头鹰

26 A Lesson on Making Bad Friends

 交坏朋友的教训

27 The Monkey's Prediction

 猴头的预见

28 Handsome and Theodore

 西奥多与敌为友

29 The Fate ofthe Elk

 驼鹿的下场

30 The Daughter of the Minister

 大臣的女儿

31 The Crow and the Swan

 马鸦和天鹅

32 Gold Is More Dangerous than a Tiger

 黄金猛于虎

33 The Goldsmith and the Blacksmith

 金匠和铁匠

34 Change of the Elephant Nature

 象性的变化

35 Inspi rations from the Stream

 清泉的启示

36 Going Forward without Burden

 放下包袱前进

37 Moral Character and Appearance

 品德和容貌

38 Stupid Scholars

 愚蠢的学者

39 Three Bronze Statues

 三尊铜像

40 Sweet Life

 甜蜜的生活

41 Two Parrots

 两只鹦鹉

42 The Wolf and the Camel

 狼和骆驼

The Cat's Judgement

Once, in a certain tree in a forest lived a crow. Under that very same tree lived another bird, a partridge. The crow and the partridge soon became good friends since they lived so close to each other.

During the day, the two birds went out on their own to look for food and to carry out other work. But in the evenings when they were both free, they spent their time together exchanging jokes and stories about what had happened to them. They had a lot of fun together.

One day the partridge decided to go with the other partridges to look for food. They went to a place where there was plenty of ripe rice. The partridge did not return home that night. The crow became worried. "Alas！Something bad may have happened to my friend the partridge," thought the crow. "Perhaps she is caught in some trap, or has even been killed." Many days passed and the partridge still did not return home. The crow missed her very much.

Then, one evening a rabbit named Speedy came to the tree. He saw the partridge's empty nest in the hole in the tree. "This is a fine nest for my new home now," Speedy said to himself. And he moved into the partridge's old nest. The crow did not stop the rabbit from moving in as she thought the partridge would never return.

However, one fine day the partridge did return to her old home. She had been staying at the paddy fields, eating plenty of rice and other delicious food. Now she had grown quite plump with all that good food.

When the partridge saw Speedy in her own nest, she was quite displeased and shouted, "Hey, Rabbit！What are you doing here？ How dare you take over my nest！ Get out. Get out at once！"……P1-2

雄猫的判决

从前，森林里的某棵树上住着一只乌鸦。树下的一个洞里，也住着一只鹧鸪(zhe gu)。由于乌鸦和鹧鸪住得很靠近，所以便成为一对好朋友。

白天，这两只鸟各自寻找食物和办事；到了傍晚，两个都空闲了，便聚集在一块儿聊天，日子过得很写意。

有一天，鹧鸪出外寻找食物时，来到一个地方，发现那里长满了成熟的稻米。当晚，鹧鸪便没有回家。乌鸦很担忧，深怕鹧鸪遭遇不幸。

几天过后，鹧鸪还是没有回来，乌鸦十分挂念她。

一天傍晚，有只兔子来到这棵对下，看见了鹧鸪的空穴，心想：“唔，这是一个理想的栖所，正合我意，我要在此住下来。”于是，他便搬入鹧鸪的洞穴里去住。

乌鸦没有阻止兔子搬进来，因为她以为鹧鸪永远都不回来了。

然而，就在一个晴朗的上午，鹧鸪回来了。由于她在稻田里吃得饱饱的，所以长得也很丰满了。

当鹧鸪发现兔子霸占了自己的居所时，十分不悦。

“喂！兔子，”鹧鸪喊道，“你怎可以趁我不在时占据了我的住所？出来，快出来！”  “不识好歹的东西！”兔子说，“难道你不知道只有居住在屋里的动物，才是真正的屋主吗？这是森林里的规矩。”……P6-7

PREFACE

A fable is an interesting short story intended to impart a philosophy of life or to tell a moral lesson. Since time immemorial, most fables from around the world have animals as their main characters sharing humanly mind and sentiment. They speak the human language and are as emotional as you and I.

Around the sixth century B.C. in India, a Sanskrit version of Panchatantra was believed to be the earliest fables in our entire planet. Later, fables from Aesop, La Fontaine, Lessing and Kriloff were made known to the public in Greece, France, Germany and Russia respectively. In the meantime, a myriad of fabulous stories were rife in ancient China during the Spring and Autumn period, and the period of the Warring States. These fables were mostly published in the works of various scholars. The more famous ones include Zhuang Zhou, Meng Ke, Han Fei and so on. Many postHan dynaSty fabulists hadalso come out with fantastic stories which serve as a link between the past and the future.

Despite their imaginative features, these ancient and modern fables from around the world boast of being "the language of human wisdom" as the storylines are practically true-to-life. The fabulists often gain various experiences and les sons from our everyday life, pick up the moist typical ones, polish them up and turn them into fabulous stories through personification, exaggeration, bsymbolization, simile, metaphor and other literary skills, providing the general audience with well-intentioned guidance and practical advice. They serve to help us gain a better understanding and management of everyday life, including our words and deeds.

As an effort to share various brilliant fabulous masterpieces from around the world with our gen eral audience, Penerbit Arowana Sdn Bhd hascompiled and published a series of books entitled "World's Great Fables". Some of the most interesting fables were painstakingly selected, rewritten in a simple style, and enhanced with lively and attractive illustrations.

"World's Great Fables" is a set of readers which can be enjoyed by both the young and the old.

                   Heng Kay Song

                   Lecturer

            Department of Chinese Studies

            University of Malaya

序

寓言，是通过一个生动、有趣的小故事，来阐发人生的哲理和寄托道德的教训。古今中外，绝大多数的寓言都是以飞禽走兽作为故事的“主人公”，但是它们的思想感情却是人的思想感情，它们也说人所说的话，拥有人的七情六欲，因此这些飞禽走兽实际上就是“人的化身”。

大约在公元前六世纪左右，印度出现了梵文本的《五卷书》，它可能是世上最早的寓言故事。后来，在希腊出现了《伊索寓言》，在法国出现了《拉封丹寓言》、 在德国出现了《莱辛寓言》，在俄国出现了《克雷洛夫寓言诗》等等。至于口国，早在几乎同个时候的春秋战国时代，也涌现了大量的寓言故事。这些寓言故事大多散布在诸子的著作里。其中尤以，《庄子》、《孟子》、《韩非子》等子书上的寓言，最为脍炙人口。汉代以后的寓言家也扮演承先启后的角色，撰写了许多非常精彩的寓言故事。

这些古今中外的寓言故事，虽具有虚构、幻想的特点，可是它们的虚构与幻想却是扎根于人类生活的现实基础上，可说是“人类智慧的语言”。寓言的作者们，从人类生活的实践中积累了各种各样的经验与教训，从中选择最有代表性的某一些，加以提炼，并通过“拟人”、“夸张”、“象征”、“譬喻”等表现手法，写成了寓言故事，为广大的读者提供善意的指导与警诫性的规劝。它们既能帮助我们认识生活，也能帮助我们驾驭生活，指导日常的言与行。

金龙鱼出版社为了让广大的读者分享来自世界各国寓言家的智慧结晶品，特编撰了一套《世界寓言精选》，精心选择最有代表性、最精彩的寓言故事，以浅白流畅的文字配以生动优美的插图，图文并茂地呈现给读者。更难能可贵的是在每一则寓言的末尾，编者还提纲挈领地指出寓言所蕴含的人生哲理。

我认为这一套《世界寓言精选》是一套益智的健康读物，不仅适合儿童阅读，同时也适合青少年，甚至成年人阅读，可谓“老少咸宜”。

马来西亚大学中文系

王介英讲师