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''The Two Pigeons'' (original French title: ''Les deux pigeons'') is a fable by Jean de la Fontaine (Book IX.2) that was adapted as a ballet with music by André Messager in the 19th century and rechoreagraphed to the same music by Frederick Ashton in the 20th. ==Fable== La Fontaine ascribed the fable to the Persian author Bidpai and had found it in an abridged version titled "The Book of Enlightenment or the Conduct of Kings".〔The longer French version can be read at (gallica.bnf.fr ), pp390-4〕 The original is of some length, embroidered as it is with many an exquisite flower of rhetoric upon the trellis of its exposition. In essence it differs little from La Fontaine's abbreviated version. Two pigeons (or doves in Elizur Wright's American translation) live together in the closest friendship and 'cherish for each other/The love that brother hath for brother.' One of them yearns for a change of scene and eventually flies off on what he promises will be only a three-day adventure. During this time he is caught in a storm with little shelter, ensnared, attacked by predators and then injured by a boy with a sling, returning with relief to roam no more. La Fontaine gives his text a Classical turn by alluding to a poem by Horace during its course.〔Vincent, Michael: ''Figures of the Text – reading and writing in La Fontaine'', Philadelphia PA, 1992, p.50〕 Horace's "Epistle to Aristus Fuscus" begins ::To Fuscus the city-lover I the country-lover ::Send greetings. To be sure in this one matter we ::Differ much, but in everything else we’re like twins ::With brothers’ hearts (if one says no, so does the other) ::And we nod in agreement like old familiar doves. ::You guard the nest: I praise the streams and woods ::And the mossy rocks of a beautiful countryside. (''Epistles'' I.10)〔Translated by A. S. Kline, (poetryintranslation.com )〕 Turtle doves are traditionally the symbol of close bonding and their appearance in Horace's poem would not be enough alone to constitute the intended allusion. But at the end of his poem La Fontaine returns to the Horatian theme of a preference for the country over life in the city. Reflecting on a youthful (heterosexual) love affair, he declares that he would not then have exchanged for a life at Court the woods in which his beloved wandered. It is this sentiment that has gained the fable the reputation of being La Fontaine's best and tenderest as it comes to rest on an evocation of past innocence: ::::O, did my wither'd heart but dare ::::To kindle for the bright and good, ::::Should not I find the charm still there? ::::Is love, to me, with things that were?〔Elizur Wright's translation of all the fables was first published in 1841 and often reprinted in both the USA and UK, (oaks.nvg.org )〕 Translations of the fable were familiar enough in Britain but the subject of male bonding left some readers uneasy (as it very obviously did Elizur Wright). Eventually there appeared an 18th-century version in octosyllabic couplets that claimed to be ‘improved from Fontaine’. Here the couple are a male and female named Columbo and Turturella. Apart from this, the only real difference is that, in place of an authorial narration, Columbo relates his misadventures to Turturella after his return and she draws the moral ‘Ere misfortunes teach, be wise’. The new version, also titled "The Two Doves", has been attributed to John Hawkesworth,〔(Nathan Drake, ''Essays Illustrative of the Rambler'' (1809-10) 2:1-33 ). 〕 one of the editors of ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' in which it first appeared (July 1748, p 326). Unascribed there, it remained so when reprinted in Thomas Bewick’s ''Select Fables of Aesop and others'' (1818).〔(Mythfolklore.net )〕 The change in gender was replicated when the fable was later made the subject of a Parisian ballet. By that time the French were already disposed to interpret it in this way. Gustave Doré, who often transposes the fables into equivalent human situations, did so in his 1868 illustration of "The Two Pigeons". This pictures a couple in 17th century dress, the woman hanging onto the departing gallant's hand and leaning towards him with concern in her eyes.〔(Old-print.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 Two Pigeons」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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