Birds

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 902 sections

1
Do you think I should walk straight for yon tree?
2
Cursed beast, what are you croaking to me? . . . to retrace my steps?
3
Why, you wretch, we are wandering at random, we are exerting ourselves only to return to the same spot; we're wasting our time.
5
To think that I should trust to this crow, which has made me cover more than a thousand furlongs!
7
And that I, in obedience to this jay, should have worn my toes down to the nails!
9
If only I knew where we were . . .
10
Could you find your country again from here?
11
No, I feel quite sure I could not, any more than could Execestides find his.
12
Alas!
12b
Aye, aye, my friend, it's surely the road of alases we are following.
13
That Philocrates, the bird-seller, played us a scurvy trick,
15
when he pretended these two guides could help us to find Tereus, the Epops, who is a bird, without being born of one. He has indeed sold us this jay, a true son of Tharrhelides, for an obolus, and this crow for three, but what can they do? Why, nothing whatever but bite and scratch!
20
What's the matter with you then, that you keep opening your beak? Do you want us to fling ourselves headlong down these rocks? There is no road that way.
22b
Not even the vestige of a trail in any direction
23
And what does the crow say about the road to follow?
24
By Zeus, it no longer croaks the same thing it did.
25
And which way does it tell us to go now?
25b
It says that, by dint of gnawing, it will devour my fingers.
27
What misfortune is ours! we strain every nerve to get to the crows, do everything we can to that end, and we cannot find our way!
30
Yes, spectators, our madness is quite different from that of Sacas. He is not a citizen, and would fain be one at any cost; we, on the contrary, born of an honorable tribe and family and living in the midst of our fellow-citizens,
35
we have fled from our country as hard as ever we could go. It's not that we hate it; we recognize it to be great and rich, likewise that everyone has the right to ruin himself paying taxes; but the crickets only chirrup among the fig-trees for a month or two,
40
whereas the Athenians spend their whole lives in chanting forth judgments from their law-courts. That is why we started off with a basket, a stew-pot and some myrtle boughs and have come to seek a quiet country
45
in which to settle. We are going to Tereus, the Epops, to learn from him, whether, in his aerial flights, he has noticed some town of this kind.
49
Here! look!
49b
What's the matter?
49c
Why, the crow has been directing me
50
to something up there for some time now.
50b
And the jay is also opening it beak and craning its neck to show me I know not what. Clearly, there are some birds about here. We shall soon know, if we kick up a noise to start them.
54
Do you know what to do? Knock your leg against this rock.
55
And you your head to double the noise.
56
Well then use a stone instead; take one and hammer with it.
56b
Good idea! He does so. Ho there, within! Slave! slave!
57b
What's that, friend! You say, slave, to summon Epops? It would be much better to shout, Epops, Epops!
59
Well then, Epops! Must I knock again? Epops!
60b
Rushing out of a thicket. Who's there? Who calls my master?
61
Apollo the Deliverer! what an enormous beak!
62
Good god! they are bird-catchers.
63
But is it so terrible? Wouldn't it be better to explain things?
64
You're done for.
64b
But we are not men.
64c
What are you, then?
65
I am the Fearling, an African bird.
66
You talk nonsense.
66b
Well, then, just ask it of my feet.
67
And this other one, what bird is it? To Pisthetaerus. Speak up!
68
I? I am a Crapple, from the land of the pheasants.
69
But you yourself, in the name of the gods! what animal are you?
70
Why, I am a slave-bird.
70b
Why, have you been conquered by a cock?
71b
No, but when my master was turned into a hoopoe, he begged me to become a bird also, to follow and to serve him.
74
Does a bird need a servant, then?
75
That's no doubt because he was once a man. At times he wants to eat a dish of sardines from Phalerum; I seize my dish and fly to fetch him some. Again he wants some pea-soup; I seize a ladle and a pot and run to get it.
79b
This is, then,
80
truly a running-bird. Come, Trochilus, do us the kindness to call your master.
81b
Why, he has just fallen asleep after a feed of myrtle-berries and a few grubs.
83
Never mind; wake him up.
83b
I am certain he will be angry. However, I will wake him to please you.
85
You cursed brute! why, I am almost dead with terror!
86
Oh! my god! it was sheer fear that made me lose my jay.
87b
Ah! you big coward! were you so frightened that you let go your jay?
88b
And did you not lose your crow, when you fell sprawling on the ground? Tell me that.
90
Not at all.
90b
Where is it, then?
90c
It flew away.
91
And you did not let it go? Oh! you brave fellow!
92
Open the thicket, that I may go out!
93
By Heracles! what a creature! what plumage! What means this triple crest?
95
Who wants me?
95b
The twelve great gods have used you ill, it seems.
96b
Are you twitting me about my feathers? I have been a man, strangers.
98b
It's not you we are jeering at.
98c
At what, then?
99
Why, it's your beak that looks so ridiculous to us.
100
This is how Sophocles outrages me in his tragedies. Know, I once was Tereus.
102
You were Tereus, and what are you now? a bird or a peacock?
103
I am a bird.
103b
Then where are your feathers? I don't see any.
104
They have fallen off.
104b
Through illness?
105
No. All birds moult their feathers, you know, every winter, and others grow in their place. But tell me, who are you?
107b
We? We are mortals.
108
From what country?
108b
From the land of the beautiful galleys.
109
Are you dicasts?
109b
No, if anything,
110
we are anti-dicasts.
110b
Is that kind of seed sown among you?
111b
You have to look hard to find even a little in our fields.
112
What brings you here?
113
We wish to pay you a visit.
114
What for?
114b
Because you formerly were a man, like we are,
115
formerly you had debts, as we have, formerly you did not want to pay them, like ourselves; furthermore, being turned into a bird, you have when flying seen all lands and seas. Thus you have all human knowledge as well as that of birds.
120
And hence we have come to you to beg you to direct us to some cosy town, in which one can repose as if on thick coverlets.
123
And are you looking for a greater city than Athens?
124
No, not a greater, but one more pleasant to live in.
125
Then you are looking for an aristocratic country.
125b
I? Not at all! I hold the son of Scellias in horror.
127
But, after all, what sort of city would please you best?
128
A place where the following would be the most important business transacted. —Some friend would come knocking at the door quite early in the morning

Perseus Greek. CTS URN tlg0019.tlg006.perseus-eng2. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source.