Ancient Bird Songs

A bird once gave me a list of ancient bird songs,
a list of songs written in birdsong deemed to be
among the greater songs, the classic bird songs.
It was a day of curious longing. Winged things
cannot be translated. No matter how one tries,
the translation will be wrong. But my new friend
did not seem to mind that these classic songs
were not being translated correctly. Indeed,
he seemed quite pleased they might exist
in other forms and told me to go on.

Author of the article

Meia Geddes lives in Boston as a writer, artist, and librarian at the Boston Public Library. She is the author of The Little Queen and Love Letters to the World. She holds a BA from Brown University and MS from Simmons University, and is an MFA candidate and Teaching Fellow at University of Massachusetts – Boston. A Fulbright scholar, she has also received funding from the American Library Association and Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. She is a member of the New England Book Artists and founder of Poetose. Find a selection of her works at www.meiageddes.com.