Catch the tails of twelve magpies

Dwanaście srok za ogon

【Editor's Recommendation】
★Ten books recommended by the jury for the 4th Pingshan Natural History Museum Book Award★2023 Capital Science Book★Winner of the Nike Prize, the highest award in Polish literature, and a model of Polish direct translation of natural literature. This book won the Nike Prize (Nagroda Literacka Nike), Poland's most prestigious literary award, the readers' vote award. It also won several authoritative Polish literary awards including the Warsaw Premiere Prize (Warszawska Premiera Literacka), the Gdynia Literature Prize (Nagroda Literacka Gdynia), and was shortlisted for the Artist Passport Award (Paszporty "Polityki") selected by Politiken Magazine. It has been translated into English, French, Spanish and other languages.
The simplified Chinese version is directly translated from the latest revised Polish edition, allowing readers to experience the resonance between nature and literature.
A beginner's guide to birdwatching: All you have to do is look up!
The Polish proverb "Catch two magpies by the tail" refers to trying to do many things at once, trying to kill two birds with one stone. "Catch twelve magpies by the tail" is a metaphor for twelve stories about birds.
Follow the author's footsteps and journey into the woods to care for lost birds on their way to the land, to the countryside to find white storks nesting, to watch long-tailed forest owls streak across the sky in remote areas, and to listen to the song of Brandt's reed warblers in city parks...
“It turns out that being passionate about something changes you forever, and we will never, ever stop birdwatching.”
Through beautiful and poetic words, the author writes about people's fascination with the world of birds, and together we gently gaze at the world that nature has given us.
★ "Easter eggs" everywhere, a journey of discovery that blends humanity and nature, combining close observation of birds with history and culture. Follow the author as he searches for birds in literature, painting, film, and music...
007 was named after an ornithologist. Baker, the author of "The Peregrine Falcon," was an unsociable "eccentric." He was a bird villain in Hitchcock's films. The song of a starling sounds like a Mozart piano concerto. Jeremy Clarkson, the author of "Clarkson's Farm," once had a car accident after eating a bunting...
There are hidden jokes everywhere and various easter eggs waiting for you to discover!
★Highly recommended by numerous naturalists and writers. Wu Tong, Professor of the Department of History of Science at Tsinghua University and author of "Birds of the Old Summer Palace," wrote the preface, and is jointly recommended by renowned naturalists and writers such as Liu Huajie, Zhang Jinshuo, Guo Geng, Liu Yang, and Ouyang Ting. ★Contains two styles of bird art illustrations, beautifully showcasing the diverse forms of birds. The chapter pages feature 12 bird paper-cut illustrations created specifically for this book by the naturalist painter Shan Que.
The book is accompanied by 12 color illustrations of bird history by John Gould, a famous 19th-century British ornithologist.
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【Content Introduction】
I gaze into the amber eyes of the Crested Titmouse, stroke the incredibly soft feathers of the Wetland Warbler, listen to the titmouse's song, and smell the fragrance of its feathers and pine resin...
A poetic journal of nature observation, twelve stories of encounters with birds. Ubinski observes birds not only from the perspective of a naturalist but also from that of a humanist. Follow the author's footsteps as he cares for lost birds on their way to the forest, searches for white storks nesting in the countryside, watches long-tailed wood owls streak across the sky in remote areas, listens to the song of Brandt's reed warblers in city parks, and explores the presence of birds in literature, painting, film, and music...
Whether in urban spaces or natural wilderness, birdwatching is not about escaping from the hustle and bustle, but about looking more tenderly at the world that nature has given us.
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This book perfectly combines my roles as a nature observer and a humanist. I hope that readers interested in nature will find the charm of culture within it, while those less so will find the paintings, music, and film clips mentioned in the book evoking a tender affection for nature. Contributing to the protection of nature will encourage us to more rationally enjoy its bounty, allowing us to experience this joy even in the midst of skyscrapers.
—Stanisław Ubinski, acceptance speech for the Nike Prize
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【Expert Recommendation & Reader Comments】
Polish author Łubinski's wonderful little book on birds is unique. The author's Polish background, unique writing style, and seamless blend of first- and second-order natural history make it a truly remarkable book. Like Edward Grey's The Allure of Birds, Paul Lawrence Farber's Discovering Birds, and Stephen Moss's Birds in the Bush, it offers readers a wealth of fascinating information. I believe Chinese natural history enthusiasts will enjoy this book.
Liu Huajie, Professor of Philosophy at Peking University and advocate of natural history culture, said: "The most valuable aspect of Catching the Tails of Twelve Magpies is its equal perspective on birds and nature, recording and depicting the birds we see and admire with a more humanistic touch, rather than a purely ornithological natural history approach that merely records their family, genus, and class. For Chinese readers, this translated work is a gift from different cultures to the interplay of nature and humanity."
—Wu Tong, Professor of the History of Science at Tsinghua University and author of "Birds of the Old Summer Palace" At first glance, this book might seem uninspired by magpies. But a quick flip reveals that "magpie's tail" has various meanings in Polish. A few paragraphs later, and you're hooked! Birdwatching is booming in my country, and there's no shortage of original books. But it's rare to find a book like this one, one that connects birdwatching with European history, geography, culture, art, and the latest scientific research, while also possessing such a strong literary quality. This is a magnificent work that uses birds as its subject matter! Highly recommended.
—Zhang Jinshuo, Deputy Director, PhD, and Research Curator at the National Museum of Zoology. This collection of birdwatching essays, through twelve beautiful birdwatching essays, intimately connects birds with literature (including ancient paintings and music). It transcends the often specious descriptions of ordinary writers, boasting a blend of artistic and scientific excellence, and is informed by the personal experiences of birdwatchers. It depicts bird migration as an epic journey, and depicts the obsessive "cart pusher" as a "bird maniac." Fortunately, I visited Poland a few years ago and was deeply impressed by the dominant species in Warsaw: the purple-winged starling and jackdaw. The streaked-bellied little owl, whose scientific name is "Athena nocturna," reminds me that we can also learn more about these lovely creatures through the lens of avian folklore. "Birds in a Cage" tells the story of four British officers imprisoned during World War II who devoted their lives to observing redstarts, transforming their prison sentences into birdwatching. I've often wondered: if our island-guarding soldiers learned birdwatching, wouldn't their dull lives become more beautiful? The book ends with a shocking introduction to world-famous extinct birds such as the dodo, passenger pigeon, and great auk, as well as the Polish blue-breasted smurf, which is now disappearing. This is truly a textbook-like bird book that inspires people.
—Guo Geng, researcher at the Beijing Elk Ecology Center and Beijing Biodiversity Conservation Center, and a seasoned birdwatcher. The author's writing not only reflects a Polish perspective but also encompasses the cultural history of birds worldwide. This book will inspire many young birdwatchers to embark on a path of ornithological research or become bird conservationists. Even without reading the text, I believe John Gould's classic natural history paintings and the paper-cut illustrations of the striated sparrow will inspire readers' love of nature.
Liu Yang, Professor of the School of Ecology at Sun Yat-sen University and Deputy Secretary-General of the Ornithological Section of the Chinese Zoological Society, presents this book as a lively series of variations on the theme of "birds." As an experienced birdwatcher, the author describes his daily birdwatching, volunteer bird banding, and stork census experiences. He also recounts the lives and works of important bird illustrators, skilled bird painters, and prominent bird nature writers, as well as the significance of birds in human history and culture. These encounters between humans and birds reveal how humans view and understand their relationship with the birds around them, as well as the place birds occupy in human life. While this book offers readers an appreciation of the joy of birdwatching, what's even more moving is the author's deep love and care for birds. His compassion and concern extend not only to birds lost forever in human history, now lost only to legend, but also to the wild creatures that continue to struggle to survive amidst the cracks of urbanization. Reading this will also make us reflect on a lot of things. We share this limited land with the birds, but as human beings, we have invaded and destroyed too much of the living space of birds.
—Ouyang Ting, famous nature writer and author of "A Tree in the North"
This book presents a fresh perspective: combining close observation of birds with history and culture, the narrative is moving and thought-provoking.
—Stephen Moss, renowned British nature writer and naturalist. This book is suitable not only for seasoned birdwatchers but also for ordinary readers who know little about birds but love literature. It allows us to discover how closely the rich and diverse world of birds is connected to the human world.
—Maciej Luniak, Professor at the Institute of Zoology and the Zoological Museum of the Polish Academy of Sciences This is a book about love, but also about people. It tells us that nature is everywhere and needs our care.
—Michał Cichy, renowned Polish writer and journalist. "A Bird's Tale is a well-deserved winner of the Nike Prize Readers' Choice Award, for it is a short book with a lot to say, revealing a world we encounter every day but know so little about. It's a book about birds, but it's also a book about us."
—Katika, Goodreads reader: "We don't lack books about birds—there are plenty of them. What we definitely lack are books that speak to the passion of birdwatching, and this book captures that passion from a colorful perspective, without getting bogged down in digressions and anecdotes or lost in scientific jargon. This isn't a book about ornithology; it's about our fascination with the bird world. Yes, this is a book deeply about us, about humans and our empathy for the world around us. Unfortunately, in our world, birdwatching is still seen as a harmless quirk, and leaving trash in the forest is taken for granted."
—Eleazar, reader of the Polish reading community lubimyczytac
(Using) (Your provided)

2023-04-01

人民文学出版社

298

9787020177875