410 BC

THE BIRDS
by Aristophanes

anonymous translator
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

EUELPIDES
PITHETAERUS

TROCHILUS, Servant to Epops
Epops (the Hoopoe)

A BIRD
A HERALD

A PRIEST
A POET

AN ORACLE-MONGER
METON, a Geometrician

AN INSPECTOR
A DEALER IN DECREES

IRIS
A PARRICIDE

CINESIAS, a Dithyrambic Poet
AN INFORMER

PROMETHEUS
POSIDON

TRIBALLUS
HERACLES

SLAVES OF PITHETAERUS
MESSENGERS

CHORUS OF BIRDS
BIRDS

(SCENE:-A wild and desolate region; only thickets, rocks, and a
single tree are seen. EUELPIDES and PITHETAERUS enter, each with a

bird in his hand.)
EUELPIDES (to his jay)

Do you think I should walk straight for yon tree?
PITHETAERUS (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.

PITHETAERUS
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!

PITHETAERUS
If only I knew where we were....

EUELPIDES
Could you find your country again from here?

PITHETAERUS
No, I feel quite sure I could not, any more than could Execestides

find his.
EUELPIDES

Alas!
PITHETAERUS

Aye, aye, my friend, it's surely the road of "alases" we are
following.

EUELPIDES
That Philocrates, the bird-seller, played us a scurvy trick,

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! (To his jay) 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.
PITHETAERUS

Not even the vestige of a trail in any direction
EUELPIDES

And what does the crow say about the road to follow?
PITHETAERUS

By Zeus, it no longer croaks the same thing it did.
EUELPIDES

And which way does it tell us to go now?
PITHETAERUS

It says that, by dint of gnawing, it will devour my fingers.
EUELPIDES

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!

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 honourable tribe and family and living in the
midst of our fellow-citizens, 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, 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 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.
PITHETAERUS

Here! look!
EUELPIDES

What's the matter?
PITHETAERUS

Why, the crow has been directing me to something up there for some
time now.

EUELPIDES
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.

PITHETAERUS
Do you know what to do? Knock your leg against this rock.

EUELPIDES
And you your head to double the noise.

PITHETAERUS
Well then use a stone instead; take one and hammer with it.

EUELPIDES
Good idea! (He does so.) Ho there, within! Slave! slave!

PITHETAERUS
What's that, friend! You say, "slave," to summon Epops? It would

be much better to shout, "Epops, Epops!
EUELPIDES

Well then, Epops! Must I knock again? Epops!
TROCHILUS (rushing out of a thicket)

Who's there? Who calls my master?
PITHETAERUS (in terror)

Apollo the Deliverer! what an enormous beak!
(He defecates. In the confusion both the jay and the crow fly

away.)
TROCHILUS (equally frightened)

Good god! they are bird-catchers.
EUELPIDES (reassuring himself)

But is it so terrible? Wouldn't it be better to explain things?
TROCHILUS (also reassuring himself)

You're done for.
EUELPIDES

But we are not men.
TROCHILUS

What are you, then?
EUELPIDES (defecating also)

I am the Fearling, an African bird.
TROCHILUS

You talk nonsense.
EUELPIDES

Well, then, just ask it of my feet.
TROCHILUS

And this other one, what bird is it? (To PITHETAERUS) Speak up
PITHETAERUS (weakly)

I? I am a Crapple, from the land of the pheasants.
EUELPIDES

But you yourself, in the name of the gods! what animal are you?
TROCHILUS

Why, I am a slave-bird.
EUELPIDES

Why, have you been conquered by a cock?
TROCHILUS

No, but when my master was turned into a hoopoe, he begged me to
become a bird also, to follow and to serve him.

EUELPIDES
Does a bird need a servant, then?

TROCHILUS
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.
EUELPIDES

This is, then, truly a running-bird. Come, Trochilus, do us the
kindness to call your master.

TROCHILUS
Why, he has just fallen asleep after a feed of myrtle-berries

and a few grubs.
EUELPIDES

Never mind; wake him up.
TROCHILUS

I an; certain he will be angry. However, I will wake him to please
you.

(He goes back into the thicket.)
PITHETAERUS (as soon as TROCHILUS is out of sight)

You cursed brute! why, I am almost dead with terror!
EUELPIDES

Oh! my god! it was sheer fear that made me lose my jay.
PITHETAERUS

Ah! you big coward! were you so frightened that you let go your
jay?

EUELPIDES
And did you not lose your crow, when you fell sprawling on the

ground? Tell me that.
PITHETAERUS

Not at all.
EUELPIDES

Where is it, then?
PITHETAERUS

It flew away.
EUELPIDES

And you did not let it go? Oh! you brave fellow!
EPOPS (from within)

Open the thicket, that I may go out!
(He comes out of the thicket.)

EUELPIDES
By Heracles! what a creature! what plumage! What means this triple

crest?
EPOPS

Who wants me?
EUELPIDES (banteringly)

The twelve great gods have used you ill, it seems.
EPOPS

Are you twitting me about my feathers? I have been a man,
strangers.

• dealer [´di:lə] n.商人 (初中英语单词)
• whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
• honourable [´ɔnərəbəl] a.荣誉的；正直的 (初中英语单词)
• likewise [´laikwaiz] ad.同样地；也，又 (初中英语单词)
• everyone [´evriwʌn] pron.=everybody 每人 (初中英语单词)
• whereas [weər´æz] conj.鉴于；因此；而 (初中英语单词)
• opening [´əupəniŋ] n.开放；开端 a.开始的 (初中英语单词)
• hammer [´hæmə] n.锤子 v.重击 (初中英语单词)
• enormous [i´nɔ:məs] a.巨大地，很，极 (初中英语单词)
• confusion [kən´fju:ʒən] n.混乱(状态)；骚乱 (初中英语单词)
• desolate [´desəleit] a.荒凉的；孤独的 (高中英语单词)
• random [´rændəm] n.偶然的行动 (高中英语单词)
• obedience [ə´bi:djəns] n.服从；顺从 (高中英语单词)
• headlong [´hedlɔŋ] ad.&a.轻率地(的) (高中英语单词)
• devour [di´vauə] vt.吞食；毁坏 (高中英语单词)
• misfortune [mis´fɔ:tʃən] n.不幸；灾祸 (高中英语单词)
• strain [strein] vt.拉紧 vi.拖 n.张力 (高中英语单词)
• madness [´mædnis] n.疯狂；狂热 (高中英语单词)
• summon [´sʌmən] vt.召集；号召 (高中英语单词)
• thicket [´θikit] n.灌木丛；密集的东西 (高中英语单词)
• wretch [retʃ] n.不幸的人；卑鄙的人 (英语四级单词)
• wasting [´weistiŋ] a.&n.浪费(的) (英语四级单词)
• aerial [´eəriəl] a.空中的 n.天线 (英语四级单词)
• vestige [´vestidʒ] n.形迹；痕迹；遗迹 (英语六级单词)
• myrtle [´mə:tl] n.桃金娘科 (英语六级单词)