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March 17, 8?? AD

 

As the author of the poem "Pangur Ban" was an anonymous Irish monk, writing in Celtic, we are using St. Patrick's Day to highlight this poetry, although the cat may well himself have been a German cat. Pangur Ban means "White Walker."

The poem reminds me of the novel Tristram Shandy. Not in terms of content but that both literary works demonstrate a phenomenon wherein the beginning of a literary genre is also its greatest instance. The novel was barely born when Laurence Sterne explored all its levels, and pushed it to its limits in an unsurpassed example. Likewise the author of "Pangur Ban", for cat poems. This excerpt demonstrates my point (Auden's translation):

...
Each has his own work to do daily;
For you it is hunting, for me study.
Your shining eye watches the wall;
My feeble eye is fixed on a book.
You rejoice, when your claws entrap a mouse;
I rejoice when my mind fathoms a problem.

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