Second Semi-Chorus
Singing.
Happy indeed is the race of winged birds who
need no cloak in winter! Neither do I fear the relentless rays of the fiery dog-days;
1090
when the divine grasshopper, intoxicated with the sunlight, as noon is burning the ground, is breaking out into shrill melody; my home is beneath the foliage in the flowery meadows. I winter in deep caverns, where I frolic with the mountain nymphs, while in spring I despoil
1095
the gardens of the Graces and gather the white, virgin berry on the myrtle bushes.
1100
Happy indeed is the race of winged birds who
need no cloak in winter! Neither do I fear the relentless rays of the fiery dog-days;
1090
when the divine grasshopper, intoxicated with the sunlight, as noon is burning the ground, is breaking out into shrill melody; my home is beneath the foliage in the flowery meadows. I winter in deep caverns, where I frolic with the mountain nymphs, while in spring I despoil
1095
the gardens of the Graces and gather the white, virgin berry on the myrtle bushes.
1100
Birds. Aristophanes. Anonymous (Translator), ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr., ed. Whitney J. Oates, ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.. New York. 1938.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.