Fables  

When Vanessa was teaching English to adults in Inner London, she found she needed stories which would resonate across different cultures and be both accessible and stimulating to students with very varied language skills. For centuries, fables have provided just such a resource, with 17th century French writer Jean De La Fontaine one of the great masters.

Finding that most translations tended to be both literal and have dated vocabulary, Vanessa created her own versions – what in the film world would be called "adaptations, based on the work of."


Here is an example

The Oak Tree and the Reed

Adapted from

Le Chêne et le Roseau  by La Fontaine

“Le Chêne un jour dit au Roseau
Vous avez bien sujet d’accuser la nature
Un roitelet pour vous est un pesant fardeau…..

Dear Reader
This tale is about
Oak tree and Reed
Who without doubt 

Knew how to speak
One to another
And did just so as
Nature’s brother

Oak to Reed said
What a pity
You are so weak
That in a jiffy

You bend over double
When a small bird alights
And your face hits the water
When a puff of wind bites

Whereas I like a mountain
My peak in the sky
Stronger than sun
And storm I defy

If you’d grown-up
Beneath my branches
You would have had
Much better chances


Now don’t you think it
Quite unfair
You stuck in water
Cold and bare?

Good Sir, you’re kind
To think of me
Said Reed, but
Wind is worse for thee

I may bend low
But never break
And Northern Wind
Could seal your fate.

Watch out!
Storm is here right now
Hold on with
Your strongest bough.

As Reed bowed down
To water low
The roots of Oak
Began to go

And yes, Dear Reader
So bad the gale
That Oak lost all
From head to tail

And Reed, that small plant
Wet and frail
Lived her full life
To tell this tale


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