“Two Eastern Fables,“ by José Rizal (on an ancient story from the Philippines and Japan)

This comparison between two fables, one from the Philippines, and the other from Japan, is the only work substantially written in English by José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. “Two Eastern Fables” was one of two contributions which he made to the journal Trübner’s Record in 1889, following his stay in London, and shows the remarkable progress which he had made in the English language after spending less than a year in England. It exemplifies his skill as a story-teller, the analytical acuteness of his mind, and his love of his native land, and deserves to be better known. Those who admire Aesop will enjoy finding exactly the same spirit to breathe here, in the telling of what Rizal calls “perhaps one of the oldest tales in the Far East.” Any versions of the text that I can find, subsequent to the original in Trübner’s Record, have, to a greater or lesser extent, omissions and inaccuracies, especially plain-text versions. I have, therefore, made a plain-text transcription from Trübner’s Record as narrowly as I could, for anybody who may wish to read or copy it, the only change being from “himself” to “herself” in the phrase “and hid himself under a cocoa-nut shell”; presumably an erratum, since Rizal has made the tortoise female. Some interesting articles: Scholar’s essay narrates Jose Rizal’s work in London Rizal’s Christmas season in London - Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 02:14 The Tale of the Tortoise and the Monkey 09:04 The Battle of the Monkey and the Crab 17:16 A comparison between both tales