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 You think that upon the score of fore-knowledge and divining I am 
infinitely inferior to the swans. When they read more 
 You think that upon the score of fore-knowledge and divining I am 
infinitely inferior to the swans. When they perceive approaching 
death they sing more merrily than before, because of the joy they 
have in going to the God they serve. 
 Coal-black is better than another hue
 In that it scorns to bear another hue;
  For all the read more 
 Coal-black is better than another hue
 In that it scorns to bear another hue;
  For all the water in the ocean
   Can never turn the swan's black legs to white,
    Although she lave them hourly in the flood. 
 The swan murmurs sweet strains with a flattering tongue, itself 
the singer of its own dirge.  
 The swan murmurs sweet strains with a flattering tongue, itself 
the singer of its own dirge. 
 The swan is not without cause dedicated to Apollo, because 
foreseeing his happiness in death, he dies with singing read more 
 The swan is not without cause dedicated to Apollo, because 
foreseeing his happiness in death, he dies with singing and 
pleasure.
 [Lat., Cignoni non sine causa Apoloni dicata sint, quod ab eo 
divinationem habere videantur, qua providentes quid in morte boni 
sit, cum cantu et voluptate moriantur.] 
 Thus does the white swan, as he lies on the wet grass, when the 
Fates summon him, sing at read more 
 Thus does the white swan, as he lies on the wet grass, when the 
Fates summon him, sing at the fords of Maeander. 
 Death darkens his eyes, and unplumes his wings,
 Yet the sweetest song is the last he sings:
  read more 
 Death darkens his eyes, and unplumes his wings,
 Yet the sweetest song is the last he sings:
  Live so, my Love, that when death shall come,
   Swan-like and sweet it may waft thee home. 
The jelous swan, agens hire deth that syngith.
The jelous swan, agens hire deth that syngith.
The immortal swan that did her life deplore.
The immortal swan that did her life deplore.