SCENE: A wild and desolate region; only thickets, rocks, and a single tree are seen. Euelpides and Pisthetaerus enter, each with a bird in his hand.
Euelpides
To his jay. Do you think I should walk straight for yon tree?Pisthetaerus
To his crow. Cursed beast, what are you croaking to me? . . . to retrace my steps?Euelpides
Why, you wretch, we are wandering at random, we are exerting ourselves only to return to the same spot; we’re wasting our time.Pisthetaerus
To think that I should trust to this crow, which has made me cover more than a thousand furlongs!Euelpides
And that I, in obedience to this jay, should have worn my toes down to the nails!Pisthetaerus
If only I knew where we were . . .
—from Aristophanes, Birds, Eugene O’Neill, Jr., ed. – translation
For May 2025’s Book Club, the selection is from Old Comedy: Aristophanes’s Birds, which is his longest extant play.
Greek text: Perseus – Greek – Aristophanes – Birds
English translations: Perseus – Aristophanes – Birds and Bacchicstage -Aristophanes -Birds
As always you may read any translation that you desire.
For reference:
On Wikipedia: The Birds (play)
On Britannica: Birds a play by Aristophanes
On Wikipedia: Old Comedy
Discussion will start and continue in the Forums, and we will meet via Zoom on Tuesday, May 27th at 11 a.m. EDT.