March 21, 2019

It is World Poetry Day, and our obvious topic then, is "Pangur Ban." An excerpt:

'Pangur, white Pangur, How happy we are
Alone together, scholar and cat
Each has his own work to do daily;
For you it is hunting, for me study. '

This is from Auden's translation.

The poem was unknown for almost a millenium. Then in the middle of the 19th century, it was retrieved from a German archive. And we are richer.