Dolphins

Though pleased to see the dolphins play,
I mind my compass and my way.

Dolphinsare marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises.

Quotes

• [O]n the planetEarth,man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in thewaterhaving agoodtime.But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the samereasons.
  • Douglas Adams,The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy(1979), Chapter 23.

• No more exulting o'er the buoyant sea
  High shall I raise my head in gambols free;
  Nor by some gallant ship breathe out the air,
  Pleas'd with my own bright image figur'd there.
  The storm's black mist has forc'd me to the land,
  And laid me lifeless on this couch of sand.
  • Attributed toAnytein theAnthologia Palatina,vii, 215, as translated by Francis Hodgson, "On a Dolphin cast ashore", inCollections from the Greek Anthology(1813), p. 117

• Round thee sport in joyous rout
  Lightly leaping, gleaming, glancing,
  Tossing in their finny dancing
  Bristly mane and flattened snout,
  Dolphins, whom the Muse enthrals—
  Playmates ’neath the briny waters
  Chasing Amphitrite’s daughters
  In the Nereids’ halls.
  • Arion,as translated byHerbert Kynaston,in E. D. Stone, ed.A Short Memoir, &c.(1912), p. 13

• Dolphins are not automatic air-breathers like we are. Every breath is a conscious effort. If life becomes too unbearable, the dolphins just take a breath and they sink to the bottom. They don't take the next breath.
  • Ric O'Barry,quoted in Christopher Riley,"The Dolphin Who Loved Me",The Guardian(8 June 2014)

• I, Iwishyou could swim
  Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
  Thoughnothing,nothing will keepustogether
  We can beat them,foreverandever
  Oh, we can beheroesjust for one day.
  • David BowieandBrian Eno,"Heroes"(1977), used as the "Tunnel song" of the filmThe Perks of Being a Wallflower(2012)

• And yet I swear by the sacred name of my creator that it was true. It was true sunshine; the truemusic;the true splash of the fountains from the mouth of stone dolphins.
  • Ford Madox Ford,The Good Soldier(1915), Part One, Ch. I (p. 7).

• Though pleased to see the dolphins play,
  I mind my compass and my way.
  • Matthew Green,The Spleen(1973)

• Then, cleaving the grass, gazelles appear
  (The gentler dolphins of kindlier waves).
  • Thomas Sturge Moore,"The Gazelles", line 13; fromThe Centaur's Booty(London: Duckworth, 1903) p. ix.

• Write byWASTE.Thegovernmentwill open it if you use the other. The dolphins will be mad.Lovethe dolphins.
  • Thomas Pynchon,The Crying of Lot 49(1966)

• Once I sat upon a promontory,
  And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
  Uttering such dulcet andharmoniousbreath,
  That the rudeseagrew civil at hersong.
  • William Shakespeare,A Midsummer Night's Dream(c. 1595), Oberon, Act 2, scene i.

• Where, like Arion on the dolphin’s back,
  I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves
  So long as I could see.
  • William Shakespeare,Twelfth Night,Act 1, scene i.

• I saw the porpus how he bounced and tumbled... They say they’re half fish, half flesh.
  • William Shakespeare,Pericles, Prince of Tyre(c. 1607–8), Act 2, scene i.

• When you drove the course for Divodāsa and for Bharadvāja, Aśvins, urging your steeds onward, your accompanying chariot conveyed wealth. A bull and a river dolphin were yoked to it.
  Conveying wealth with good rule and a full lifetime with good descendants and good men, Nāsatyas, you two of one mind journeyed here with the prizes of victory to the wife of Jahnu, who was setting your portion three times a day.
  • Rigveda,I, 116, 18–19, as translated by Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton,The Rigveda: The Earliest Poetry of India,Vol. 1(Oxford UP, 2014), p. 270
  • Variant: Ashwins, when you came speeding on your course to Divodasa-Bharadvaja, holding you, your splendid vehicle traveled, yoked by a bull and a dolphin. Carrying wealth, dominion, progeny, life and vigor, accordant you came to the Jahnavi with strength, where your offering is made three times a day.