That comes from a 14th-century poem
too long for me to care to read just yet.
If I’m going to read a long poem,
it better be something translated
from Greek, not a tongue like mine,
albeit much different than my tongue.
Besides, bird shoe really comes from a Greek
philosopher who called it character
instead of what I misheard as bird shoe
as a child, and before that, it was called
many other things that hold no interest
when you have been all-consumed with
finding someone with some virtue
since everyone found it so important
they kept harping on it in Greek, Latin,
even my English tongue where I finally
found it beating in the heart of my love.