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| by Nivalis70 (site) |
Now
from liquid fields
I
soar to the atmosphere:
Who
gives me wings
to
cross the clouds
[720]
and beat all birds?
May
He by whom Man
was
lifted lead me
in
this stormy history
of
flexible Fortune
who hosts tornados
snow and wind and fire
that shake the starlings.
Sky and
sea were OK
woods and meadows green
[730] when Adonai
asked
the struthia
to take off
in the sky—the
storehouse
of humors that exhale
from our opaque orb—
and they immediately
started to sing ’n’
fly.
If
you were awake among
fish,
among so many
songs
will you sleep?
[740]
Will you dare delay
the
praise of our Provider
of
food, whom we thank?
Twice
a day, at dawn
and
when the sun sets
and
Orient fades off
they
chant in chorus;
will
now sunrise be silent
as
well as twilight?
(Millet
una notte,
[750]
the bells welcoming
the
mortals’ toils.)
Never!
But the narrative
of
Day Five follows.
Birds
are re-formed fish,
swimming
and winged
species are similar
in their natural tools:
they both cross currents
by feathers or fins
[760] twisting their tails
like oars and helms.
Fish however are fed
by wavering waves,
birds by stable soil;
therefore the former
didn’t
develop the legs
the
latter lean on.
Crocodiles
that kill
along
the Nile’s banks
[770]
have lateral legs—
“-ped”
properly coming
from
“pedon,”
the soil.
While
one ornithological
kind
keeps carrying in
the
air its fragile frame
insofar
as it has no feet
as
if meant by Nature
Jonathan-Livingston-like
an
example to noble souls
[780]
who only aim at heaven;
it
looks like a swallow
and
on rearing rocks
makes
a muddy nest
with
a narrow entrance,
Greeks
call it “kypselos.”
Others
do have toes but
are
unable to attack
and
capture their preys
in
the air. Among these
[790]
the nimble swallow
that
hunts by flying low
and
grazing the ground;
and
Riparia
that recalls
the
grassy river banks.
(to be continued on Feb. 19)
