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'once upon a time' in other languages:
korean: “back when tigers used to smoke” (호랑이 담배 피우던 시절에) [x]
czech: “beyond seven mountain ranges, beyond seven rivers” (za sedmero horami a sedmero řekami)
georgian: “there was, and there was not, there was…” (იყო და არა იყო რა, იყო…)
hausa: “a story, a story. let it go, let it come.” [x]
romanian: “there once was, (as never before)… because if there wasn’t, it wouldn’t have been told” (A fost odată, ca niciodată că dacă n-ar fi fost, nu s-ar mai povesti…)
lithuanian: “beyond nine seas, beyond nine lagoons: (už devynių jūrų, už devynių marių)
catalan: “see it here that in that time in which beasts spoke and people were silent…” (vet aquí que en aquell temps que les bèsties parlaven i les persones callaven…) [x]
turkish: “Once there was, and once there wasn’t. In the long-distant days of yore, when haystacks winnowed sieves, when genies played jereed in the old bathhouse, [when] fleas were barbers, [when] camels were town criers, [and when] I softly rocked my baby grandmother to sleep in her creaking cradle, there was/lived, in an exotic land, far, far away, a/an…* (Bir varmış, bir yokmuş. Evvel zaman içinde, kalbur saman içinde, cinler cirit oynar iken eski hamam içinde, pireler berber [iken], develer tellal [iken], ben ninemin beşiğini tıngır mıngır sallar iken, uzak diyarların birinde…)
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The language of birds is very ancient, and like other ancient modes of speech, very elliptical; little is said, but much is meant and understood.
—Gilbert White
Letter XLIII, Selborne,9 September 1778
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(all) creatures have territories ...
for some birds, their song is a fence.
—Wendell Berry
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