Neue Fabeln

Abstract

Blumberger was a teacher and school principal. This book contains a mix of literary genres. Perhaps eleven of the thirty offerings are fables. The remaining nineteen are parables and other narratives, often involving animals and offering a moral at their end. The fables criticize human weaknesses like vanity, stupidity, thoughtlessness, and laziness. The fables address everyday life of individual human beings; they do not address social and political issues. In Das Licht (1), a cat hates light and is proud to raise a dust-cloud around herself against the light of the sun. In answer to her boast of victory, a finch sitting on a nearby branch declares You are in the wrong. The rest of us can see as clearly as before. Your dust affects you, not the sun whom you oppose. In Der Esel als Gärtner (4), the lion appoints the ass as his gardener but then has to face the consequences when his family comes to enjoy the garden and finds it instead a field full of thorns! In Der Fuchs und die Gänse (4-5), the wolf tells the fox that his stalking of geese today is useless since they have noticed him and are making noise. Rather, I am happy that they make noise. It makes my choice easier. The biggest geese make the most noise. A particularly apt fable is Eulenweisheit (19-21) with its moral: der in der Stille schaffende Geist ist es, der zur Weisheit führt.