112. The Wolf Who Thinks The Moon Is A Wheel Of Cheese (El Lobo Cree Que La Luna Es Queso)
One night, a very hungry wolf was going round and round in the forest in search of something to eat, but no animal was within his reach. In one such instance, he ran into a fox who was lying in the shade of some bushes, gasping for breath and with her tongue [sticking] out.
The wolf, as soon as he saw her, went straight to her and said:
Listen here, Madam Fox, I am going to eat you right now because I am dying of hunger and I have to eat something.
The fox replied:
But look carefully, Mister Wolf, for I am all bones. How are you going to eat me if I have only bones and skin? Don’t you see how skinny and weak I am?
And the wolf said:
Ah, is that so? Well you were so fat and plump this past year.
Aye, Mister Wolf! – replied the fox -. This past year, yes, as I was well fed, but now I have to nurse my four little foxes, and as soon as I eat anything, it gets turned into milk for my little ones. So how do you expect me to be fat?
And the wolf, who did not have understanding for her situation due to his hunger, said [to himself]:
It’s all the same to me, I’ll eat her!
And he was about to take his first bite when the fox said to him:
Stop, for God’s sake, Mister Wolf. Look, I know where a man lives who has a well which is [chock] full of cheese. Come with me to the well before you eat me and you will see that I am telling the truth.
And so the fox and the wolf went off to search for [those] cheese.
They arrived at a house in the middle of the field [countryside], passed the walls that guarded it, and came to the well which was next to the orchard. The moon was reflecting in the still water and it looked entirely like a [wheel of] cheese.
The fox leaned out from the parapet and said to the wolf:
Aye, my wolf friend, how big this cheese is! Look, look and you will see.
The wolf [also] leaned out [from the parapet], he saw the moon and thought that it was a big [wheel of] cheese. But as the wolf did not trust the fox, he said to her:
Very well, my fox friend, well then you [should] go in for the cheese.
The fox entered one of the water buckets and lowered herself down to get the cheese. And from down below she shouted to the wolf:
Aye, my wolf friend, how big this cheese is! I can’t handle it. Could you not come down and help me?
I cannot go down – said the wolf -. How do I get down there?
And the fox said to him:
My friend, don’t be [so] clumsy. Put yourself in the other bucket and you will go down here as easily as I had.
As soon as the wolf put himself in the other bucket, as he weighed more, he went down quickly; and clearly, the bucket that the fox was in, as it weighed less, so it went up. The wolf remained in the well searching for the cheese, and the fox went away happily to see her pups.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Alcance – (grasp) reach; (extent) scope, reach; (significance) importance; (resources) means; (distance) range; (negative balance) deficit (accounting)
Arbusto – (botany) bush, shrub
Brocal – (framework around top of well) parapet, curb; (edge) rim
Cubo – (container) bucket, pail
Desfallecido – weak
Fiar – (to give on trust) to sell on credit; fiarse – (to confide in, use with “de”) to trust, to believe
Fijar – (to put) to fix; (to determine) to set, to establish, to fix; (to concentrate) to fix, to focus; fijarse – (to concentrate) to pay attention; (to become aware of) to notice
Huerto – (plot planted with fruit trees) orchard; (cultivated land) vegetable garden
Jadear – (to wheeze) to pant, to gasp
Lengua – (anatomy) tongue; (system of communication) language, tongue
Lustroso – shiny, glossy
Mamar – (to nurse) to suckle, to feed, to breastfeed;
Mordisco – (act of biting) bite; (taste) bite; (gain) profit
Pellejo – (outer layer of body) skin, hide;
Pozo – (source of water or oil) well
Relleno – (fat) plump, full
Reponer – (to respond) to reply; (to return money) to repay; (to provide a substitute) to replace, to replenish
Tapia – wall, garden wall
Torpe – (graceless) clumsy; (not quick-witted) slow, dim; (tactless) awkward