[Picture & Story] from Nicolas Abesdrin

I wrote to  Nicolas Abesdrin about some art.  He is sending me a lot of 
his collection.  I received the first batch this morning.  He translated 
some children's stories from French into English and illustrated them 
with ascii art.  Here is the first of the series.

From: abe...@JSP.UMontreal.CA
Message-Id: <199...@spi61.jsp.umontreal.ca>
Subject: My ascii stories
To: pix...@netcom.com
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 16:45:36 -0400 (EDT)

   S O N G   O F   T H E   S N A I L S   G O I N G   T O   F U N E R A L S

                                ,,,
                               (o o)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-oOOo-(_)-oOOo-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

This story, my little one, happens in a pine-tree forest,     @
called the evergreen forest by its inhabitants.  This        *|*
forest, as your probably know, my little one, was called    @\|/*
"evergreen" because the pine trees never lose their       *\**|*@/*
leaves, even in the Fall, and so this forest was        @*\**\|/***/@
always, always green.                                    **\**|**/**
                                                        *\**@\|/**@/*
                                /|_                   @\***\**|**/***/
                               /   |_                   *\@**\|/***/*
Every day, when the sun was   /     /                 ***@*\**|**/*@***
high in the sky, the news-   /      >               @********\|/*@******@
bird (a beautiful blue-     (      >                         _|_
tailed bird with large     /      /
wings) ran from           /     /       Every day, the newsbird
pine to pine, singing    /      /       talked to each of the inhabitants,
the news for the      _/      \_____    asking them: "Do you have any news?
other inhabitants    /-             |   is there something new to say to
of the forest.        /     /-\     /   anyone?"
Then after a while,  /      /  \--/
each day, he        /     /
would leave to     /      /      One day, it would be   (\
sing the news     (      >       the rabbit family,      \\__/(\
in the next      /      >        having a new bunny       Q Q  \)
forest.         /     _|         child. The bird        =(_T_)=
               /  __/            would then sing high
              /_/                and clear in the pine forest: "Rejoice!
                                 Mr. and Mrs. Rabbit just have had a 17th
                                 child!"

Another day, it would be a caterpillar          /_\    Y
that suddenly decided it was time          7   // \\  ( )
to change a bit and transformed into a      \//    \\_//
                   beautiful, colorful,
   //\         /\\   and delicate butterfly. The newsbird would then sing
  || * \ . . / * ||  in all the neighborhood forests: "Mr Caterpillar is now
   \\____\X/____//   a Butterfly! Mr Caterpillar is now a Butterfly!"
    / *  /O\  * \    And every inhabitant would hear the beautiful voice of
    \__/  "  \__/    the newsbird, and would rejoice and applaud.
                                                                    _
But of course, the news wasn't always happy, my little one.      __( )__
Sometime, the newsbird would softly sing, with sad notes        (__>O<__)
in his voice, of the death of a flower in the grass of a nearby    (_)
forest, or the lost of petals of a rose in a garden not far.        |
All news was known to the newsbird, because he flies very           |
fast everywhere.  Much of the news didn't concern the             ///\_
inhabitant of the evergreen forest, though, since the newsbird
was giving the news to several forests.

       _-_       One day, the newsbird sang very sad news to the
    /~~   ~~\      inhabitants of the evergreen forest.
 /~~         ~~\    "Today is dead the leaves of one of the trees of the
{               }    maple forest... they desperately tried to resist,
 \  _-     -_  /    and in their beautiful effort, they turned yellow and
   ~  \\ //  ~~   even red! But they still have fallen from their tree
       | |       and they are dead now. Every inhabitant is invited
       | |       to their funerals.. they   will be buried with respect
      // \\      and love in the next             forest: the maple Forest!"
                                            @             _________
Hearing the news, many of the animals of     \____       /         \
the evergreen forest were very sad, but      /    \     /   ____    \
mostly, they were very curious. What? How    \_    \   /   /    \    \
can a leaf become red and fall and die?        \    \ (    \__/  )    )
It never happened, in their forest! A snail     \    \_\ \______/    /
couple, especially, were very very sad           \      \           /___
and also very amazed by the news, and asked the   \______\_________/____"-_
newsbird a few questions:

 "How can a leaf turn yellow? And red? And how can it die, falling out from
 its tree? It never happens here in the evergreen Forest! Isn't it always 
 the same everywhere?"
 "No, no, answered the newsbird. There is many forests other than yours!
 In the maple forest, trees let their leaves die in
 Fall and its very sad, but very beautiful and colorful...       /\ o-/\
 Will you come to the funerals and pay your last respects       ///\|/\\\
 to the poor Leaf family?"                                     /   /|\   \

 "Is it far from here?" asked the wife snails, for they knew they were very
 slow, and though they hold their house on their back, like turtles, the wife
 wanted to be sure they would be back for dinner.
 "Oh no! only a few minutes straight ahead from here.. you cant miss it,
 its like a rainbow of orange, yellow and red leaves everywhere!"

The snail couple decided to go to the              ___
funerals.  They walked.. and walked.. and        // __`\  o o ~
walked for a long long time. They were soon     ll ( .) l_) ) `
very tired of walking, and exhausted.          __\\ \__/   /
   ___________________________________________/_/________/^^

   /^\_           _/|      "Is the oak-Forest still far from here? they
  |    \  __  ___/  /      would ask a bird every day, during their trip."
   \_       >    _/
     \__      __/     "Oh no! would answer the bird! Continue straight
       /    _/        forward, you cant miss it! It's only a few minutes
      /___/\ \        ahead! keep going!"
            m m                                                  (  (    )
                      And so snails continued to walk and      ( (     )   )
walk for days and nights.  The wife-snail already realized     ( (         )
they wouldn't be back for dinner: indeed they often had to    (           / )
stop to eat on the road, before continuing their trip --      ( ( \\       )
but since the snails, as you know my little one, always          ( |  // )
travel with their house on their back, they weren't too much       |   |
bothered about their slowness, and so they walked for a long,      |   |
long time.  Eventually, after a long long time, they arrived       |   |
in the maple forest. But They were very surprised. It wasn't       |   |
red and yellow at all! it was beautiful, and sunny, and green!     |   |
Beautiful trees like they never saw before were there, and      ``'-------
their leaves were splendid and full of life!

                  |       They were stunned, and looked ridiculous, here
                 |.|      in this beautiful green and living forest, with
                 |.|      their black mourning shells and the mourning crepe
                |\./|     on their horn...
                |\./|
.               |\./|               .    "Why are you in mourning?" asked
 \^.\          |\\.//|          /.^/     one of the beautiful green Leaves,
  \--.|\       |\\.//|       /|.--/      on a tree. "You both seem so sad!!"
    \--.| \    |\\.//|    / |.--/
     \---.|\    |\./|    /|.---/     "We came here for the funerals of a
        \--.|\  |\./|  /|.--/        dead leaf," answered the snail couple.
           \ .\  |.|  /. /           "The newsbird told us we were invited!"
 _ -_^_^_^_-  \ \\ // /  -_^_^_^_- _   The two snails were very disappointed.
   - -/_/_/- ^ ^  |  ^ ^ -\_\_\- -      But then the sun said to them:
                  |
                  |                 "Don't be sad! It's Summer, now! All the
                                     leaves are restored to life! Laugh! and
stay here for a while, enjoy the feast and take some vacations!"

The sun was warming all the forest, and all the   o       o
animals laughed, and singed, and everyone was so   \_____/
happy that the two snails soon started to laugh    /=O=O=\     _______
too, and decided to join the summer life.         /   ^   \   /\\\\\\\\
they painted their shell in beautiful sunset      \ \___/ /  /\   ___  \
colors, and removed their black mourning crepe     \_ V _/  /\   /\\\\  \
and soon, they were laughing and playing with the    \  \__/\   /\ @_/  /
other inhabitants of the maple forest.                \____\____\______/
Then later, they started their trip home, and who
knows, my little one? maybe was it Fall again when they arrived?

                                ,,,
                               (o o)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-oOOo-(_)-oOOo-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Diane Wenner (pix...@netcom.com) wrote:
|>  I wrote to  Nicolas Abesdrin about some art.  He is sending me a lot of 
|>  his collection.  I received the first batch this morning.  He translated 
|>  some children's stories from French into English and illustrated them 
|>  with ascii art.  

Does this nice work also exist with the original language of the story?
I mean French illustrated with ascii art. If Nicolas Abesdrin is from
Montreal there may be a chance...

   Frederic