Once upon a time, there was a fox who was terribly hungry. He passed a bower and saw delicious grapes hanging high up, "perfectly ripe, it seemed, dark purple in color." He longed to eat them, but he couldn't reach them. The wall was much too high. He found it hard to admit this, for he was a proud fox who liked to pose as a noble gentleman. Could such a noble gentleman say to himself that he was hungry but couldn't reach the grapes? "And so he deceived his own stomach and said: 'They're much too green / and sour for me, this isn't proper fox food.'" Thus he maintained his self-esteem. And his hunger.

The story comes from the new translation of the Fables by Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695). You'd expect a moral from such a fable, but it's missing. What are we to make of a proud fox who turns his nose up at something he can't actually reach? The poem's ending is surprising: "At least that was better / than if he had started acting pitifully."‘

Jean de La Fontaine: Fables. Translated by Marietje d'Hane-Scheltema and illustrated by Floris Tilanus. Van Oorschot