CHAPTER 2 | EXPRESSIONS, PROVERBS AND FABLES

Expressions, proverbs and fables featuring animals are timeless.

EXPRESSIONS

Exercise 1: in a square or circular frame, draw a picture about one of the following expressions involving an animal. If drawing the chosen animal is too difficult you can first trace an existing picture. Write the expression in clear letters below, above or around your drawing, in a bar or frame.

Proud as a peacock / Faithful as a dog / Strong as a bear / Cunning as a fox / Lazy as a pig / Stubborn as a donkey /  As out of tune as a crow / So slow as a snail / Hold your horses! (stop, no rush!) / Holy cow! (I can’t believe what I see/hear/what’s happened here!) / Diligent as an ant.

If drawing the animal you have chosen is too difficult, you can also first trace a photo/existing image.

PROVERBS

Emblemata are small moralistic drawings or engravings, usually in a square or circular frame (moralistic: intended as a life lesson). They were extremely popular in the 17th century. A striking example is the engraving by Adriaen van der Venne from a book by Jacob Cats. This emblem is about the Latin proverb ‘Rex Immoderata cupido est’, or ‘Desire is greedy’: about people who want more and more and more, while they actually already have more than enough (money or power). In the picture, this greed is depicted by a dog whose mouth is full of meat but who is already longing for a new piece of meat that is held out to him by a hand from a cloud.

Exercise 2: in a square, oval or circular frame, draw a picture about one of the following proverbs involving an animal. Write the proverb in clear letters below, above or around your drawing, in a bar or frame. If drawing the animal you choose is still too difficult, you can  trace an existing picture.

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks
Meaning: you can’t force an old person to change
One swallow does not make a summer
Meaning: don’t think too quickly that everything will go exactly the way you want
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Meaning: sometimes it’s better to have trust in something that feels close
Let sleeping dogs lie
Meaning: don’t talk about a problem or danger that you can easily avoid by being silent about it.
When the cat’s away the mice will play
Meaning: When the parents (or teachers) aren’t there, the kids can go their own way
Putting the cart before the horse
Meaning: to tackle something in such a way that it is useless and cannot work at all
When there’s one sheep over the dam, more will follow
Meaning: if one person tries something new, the others dare too
You never know how a cow catches a hare
Meaning: Something can always work out unexpectedly, if you just try

FABLES

There are many fables in which something occurs with animals we know. An example is the fable of the hedgehog and the snake: A hedgehog asks a snake if he can use his burrow for the winter. The fable describes how the hedgehog’s spines disturb the snake’s hibernation. The moral of the story teaches us to be cautious with charity.