El ciclo de fa!bulas de animales del "e;Panchatantra"e;, compilado en sa!nscrito hace casi dos mil aaAos, reaAne los relatos hindaAes ma!s difundidos a lo largo de los siglos por todo el mundo, desde China hasta EtiopaA-a. "e;Kalila y Dimna"e; forma parte del ciclo de fa!bulas de animales del "e;Panchatantra"e;, y es sin duda una de las obras ma!s populares de la literatura universal. En Europa circulaA traducida del a!rabe, a partir del siglo XIII, y su influencia va desde Ramon Llull, Chaucer, Boccacio o Cervantes hasta La Fontaine. Esta formidable versiaAn de Ramsay Wood no saAlo moderniza los antiguos relatos Acomo antaaAo hicieron las traducciones medievalesA, sino que combina las principales versiones del sa!nscrito, el persa, el a!rabe e incluso el inglaA(c)s antiguo. Narradas por Wood A--y magnaA-ficamente ilustradas--A, las fa!bulas del sabio Bidpai recobran los brillantes colores de los tapices hindaAes y se nos revelan de nuevo como una obra maestra: el jovial relato de las aventuras de animales nobles a veces, paA-caros a menudo, pero siempre esponta!neos, nos devuelve la imagen de las pasiones humanas en toda su ambivalencia."e;Una obra que se nos presenta limpia de polvo arqueolaAgico, en un sabroso castellano contempora!neo (gran versiaAn de Nicole d'Amonville AlegraA-a), que a su vez trabaja sobre una modaA(c)lica traducciaAn moderna inglesa. AQuaA(c) nos maravilla hoy mismo en tan remoto libro? Su fresca fantasaA-a, la sabiduraA-a moral que esconde, la juguetona astucia con que cuenta los avatares de leopardos cornejas, camellos o chinches, y la condiciaAn oral que procura siempre mantener, y que permite que el argumento ofrezca deliciosos quiebros y sorpresas"e; Carles Barba, La Vanguardia Culturas

KALILA AND DIMNA or The Panchatantra (also known in Europe since 1481 as The Fables of Bidpai) is a multi-layered, inter-connected and variable arrangement of animal stories, with one story leading into another, sometimes three or four deep. These arrangements have contributed to world literature for over 2000 years, migrating across ancient cultures in a multitude of written and oral formats. All our beast fables from Aesop and the Buddhist Jataka Tales through La Fontaine to Uncle Remus owe this strange, shape-shifting 'book' a huge debt. In its original Arabic format, Kalila and Dimna (The Panchatantra being its Sanskrit precursor), ostensibly constitutes a handbook for rulers, a so-called 'Mirror for Princes' illustrating indirectly, through a cascade of teaching stories and verse, how to (and how not to!) run the kingdom of your life. In their slyly profound grasp of human nature at its best (and worst!) these animal fables, usually avoiding any moralistic human criticism, serve up digestible wise counsel for us all. Based on his collation of scholarly translations from key Sanskrit, Syriac, Arabic and Persian texts, as well as the 1570 English rendition by Thomas North, this is the first uncompromisingly modern re-telling in either the East or West for over 400 years. In Ramsay Wood's version the profound meanings behind these ancient fables shine forth as he captures a great world classic, making it fresh, relevant, fascinating and hugely readable. His second volume of fables from KALILA AND DIMNA picks up where the first, Fables of Friendship and Betrayal, left off - covering deceit, political skullduggery, murder, enemies, deadly monsters, kings, bees, princesses, monkeys, lions, crocodiles and how we all live and die together in peace or conflict. This is a book full of outrageously behaved animals and humans doing the most delightfully awful (yet sometimes gentle) things to each other. These are joyous, sad, amusing and sometimes brutal stories; their function being to educate both king and commoner alike in the ways of the world, the harsh realities that can often lurk beneath the surface of our cozy, everyday subjectivity.

Las eternas “Fábulas de Bidpai”, reunidas hace unos 2.000 años en el Panchatantra traducidas desde Etiopía hasta China , y que inspiraron a autores tan diversos como Esopo, La Fontaine, Llull, y Chaucer, han sido retomadas por Ramsay Wood quien las vuelve a contar con un lenguaje moderno y divertido, respetuoso y energético.

The tales of Kalila and Dimna originated almost 2000 years ago in a Sanskrit collection of animal stories called the Panchatantra, and have influenced modern fables from The Arabian Nights to The Canterbury Tales. Graced with Margaret Kilrenny's beautiful illustrations, the first two books of the Panchatantra's five are brilliantly rendered here by Ramsay Wood.