|
The mouse turned into a maid is an ancient fable of Indian origin that travelled westwards to Europe during the Middle Ages and also exists in the Far East. Its Classical analogue is the Aesop's Fable of "Venus and the Cat" in which a man appeals to the goddess Venus to change his cat into a woman. The fable has the themes of incomplete transformation and, in the Indian form, of a succession of more powerful forces. It has received many treatments in literature, folklore and the arts. It is Aarne-Thompson type 2031C.〔D. L. Ashliman, "(The Mouse Who Was to Marry the Sun: fables of Aarne-Thompson type 2031C )"〕 Another tale of this type is ''The Husband of the Rat's Daughter''. The theme of metamorphosis is also treated in ''The Cat Turned into a Woman''. ==The Mouse-Maid Made Mouse== The story found in the Panchatantra relates how a mouse drops from the beak of a bird of prey into the hands of a holy man, who turns it into a girl and brings her up as his own. Eventually he seeks a powerful marriage for her and first approaches the sun, asking the girl: :"Little girl, how do you like him, this blessed lamp of the three worlds?" "No, father," said the girl. "He is too burning hot. I could not like him. Please summon another one, more excellent than he is." :Upon hearing this, the holy man said to the sun: "Blessed one, is there any superior to you?" And the sun replied: "Yes, the cloud is superior even to me. When he covers me, I disappear." :So the holy man summoned the cloud next, and said to the maiden: "Little girl, I will give you to him." "No," said she. "This one is black and frigid. Give me to someone finer than he." :Then the holy man asked: "O cloud, is there anyone superior to you ?" And the cloud replied: "The wind is superior even to me." :So he summoned the wind, and said: "Little girl, I give you to him." "Father," said she, "this one is too fidgety. Please invite somebody superior even to him." So the holy man said: "O wind, is there anyone superior even to you ?" "Yes," said the wind. "The mountain is superior to me." :So he summoned the mountain and said to the maiden: "Little girl, I give you to him." "Oh, father," said she. "He is rough all over, and stiff. Please give me to somebody else." :Then the holy man asked: "O kingly mountain, is there anyone superior even to you ?" "Yes," said the mountain. "Mice are superior to me." :Then the holy man summoned a mouse, and presented him to the girl, saying: "Little girl, do you like this mouse?" Since the girl feels the call of like to like in this case, she is changed back to her original form and goes to live with her husband in his hole.〔The full version can be found on pages 353-9 of the translation at http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00litlinks/panchatantra_ryder/03book_part2.pdf〕 The tale has many Indian versions, including current oral examples. It was eventually translated into Pahlavi and then into Arabic, but before a version of any of these works had reached Europe the fable appeared in Marie de France's ''Ysopet'' as a cautionary tale against social climbing through marrying above one's station (Fable 74). The creature involved is a male vole ('which is a kind of mouse', Marie explains) who applies to the sun for the hand of his daughter. He is sent on to a cloud, the wind, a tower, and then the mouse that undermines it, to the ruin of his aspirations.〔See under the ''Isopet'' section of quotations from her work at http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/marie.html〕 The theme of keeping to one's class reappears in a Romanian folk variant in which a rat sets out to pay God a visit. He applies to the sun and to clouds for directions, but neither will answer such a creature; then he asks the wind, which picks him up and flings him on an ant-heap - 'and there he found his level', the story concludes. A less harsh judgement is exhibited in Japanese and Korean variants where the father seeking a powerful match for his daughter is sent round the traditional characters of sun, cloud and wind, only to discover that he too has his place on the ladder of power. It is interesting to note that all these are animal fables and lack the transformation theme. In the Japanese case a rat is involved and in the Korean a mole.〔See the selection of tales of this type at http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type2031c.html〕 The later version in La Fontaine's Fables, "The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid" (Fables IX.7), acknowledges the story's Indian origin by making it a Brahmin who fosters the mouse and gives it back the body it had in a former birth. Such goings-on shock the good Catholic in La Fontaine, who finds in the story's culmination, in which the girl falls in love with the burrowing rat at the mere mention of its name, an argument to confound the Eastern fabulist's beliefs: ::::In all respects, compared and weigh'd, ::::The souls of men and souls of mice ::::Quite different are made - ::::Unlike in sort as well as size. ::::Each fits and fills its destined part ::::As Heaven doth well provide; ::::Nor witch, nor fiend, nor magic art, ::::Can set their laws aside.〔(Readbookonline.net )〕 It is the philosophical wrangling in this fable which inspired the American poet Marianne Moore to a wry and idiosyncratic recreation in her versions of La Fontaine (1954): :::We are what we were at birth, and each trait has remained :::in conformity with earth's and with heaven's logic: :::Be the devil's tool, resort to black magic, :::None can diverge from the ends which Heaven foreordained.〔Marianne Moore〕 This in turn was set for unaccompanied soprano by the British composer Alexander Goehr in 1991. The fable is also the subject of Print 90 in Marc Chagall's set of 100 hand-coloured etchings of La Fontaine's work commissioned by Ambroise Vollard in 1926 and executed between 1927 and 1930.〔A 1952 print of this can be seen at (franklinbowlesgallery.com )〕 The original Indian version has been made into an animated film and appears with Hindi, Kannada and English narrations on YouTube.〔(Youtube.com )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Mouse Turned into a Maid」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|