Dinesen, Isak -- “The Deluge at Norderney,” Seven Gothic Tales [Miss Malin] (1934)

Dave — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 17:17:28 +0000

I walked in the woods and looked at the birds, and I thought: How dreadful that people shut up birds in cages. If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages, they should all be free —

Isak Dinesen (1885-1962) Danish writer [pseud. of Karen Christence, Countess Blixen]
“The Deluge at Norderney,” Seven Gothic Tales [Miss Malin] (1934)
(Source)

Montaigne, Michel de -- Essays, Book 3, ch. 5 (3.5), “Of Some Verses of Virgil [Sur des vers de Virgile]” (1586) [tr. Screech (1987)]

Dave — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:20:49 +0000

We cannot do without it [marriage] yet we go and besmirch it, with the result that it is like birds and cages: the ones outside despair of getting in: the ones inside only care to get out.

[Nous ne nous en pouvons passer, & l’allons avilissant. Il en advient ce qui se voit aux cages, les oiseaux qui en sont dehors, desesperent d’y entrer ; & d’un pareil soin en sortir, ceux qui sont au dedans]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 3, ch. 5 (3.5), “Of Some Verses of Virgil [Sur des vers de Virgile]” (1586) [tr. Screech (1987)]
(Source)

First published in the 1588 ed.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

We cannot be without it, and yet we disgrace and vilifie the same. It may be compared to a cage, the birdes without dispaire to get in, and those within dispaire to get out.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

We cannot live without it, and yet we do nothing but decry it. It happens, as with Cages, the Birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.
[tr. Cotton (1686); Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

We can not do without it, and yet we express contempt for it. The same thing happens that we see about cages: the birds outside are in despair at not getting in, and those within feel equal discomfort at not getting out.
[tr. Ives (1925)]

We cannot do without it, and yet we go about’ debasing it. The result is what is observed about cages: the birds outside despair of getting in, and those inside are equally anxious to get out.
[tr. Frame (1943)]

Deval, Jacques -- Afin de vivre bel et bien (1970)

Dave — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 13:09:16 +0000

God loved the birds and invented trees.
Man loved the birds and invented cages.

Jacques Deval (1895-1972) French playwright and director [pseud. of Jacques Boularan]
Afin de vivre bel et bien (1970)

WIST Quotations

Dinesen, Isak -- “The Deluge at Norderney,” Seven Gothic Tales [Miss Malin] (1934)

Montaigne, Michel de -- Essays, Book 3, ch. 5 (3.5), “Of Some Verses of Virgil [Sur des vers de Virgile]” (1586) [tr. Screech (1987)]

Deval, Jacques -- Afin de vivre bel et bien (1970)