Eugene, onze Roemeense gids, verblufte ons keer op keer met zijn fenomenale kennis van de uitzonderlijke vogelrijkdom van de Donau-delta. Maar zo nu en dan maakte hij ons ook deelgenoot van zijn opvattingen over bijzondere bevolkingsgroepen in zijn vaderland. Dat viel niet altijd in goede aarde, in ieder geval niet bij mij.
Gelukkig viel mij de eer te beurt om hem op de laatste dag te mogen toespreken. En dat heb ik als volgt gedaan.
Dear Eugene, it is time to evaluate and it is time to give compliments. And of course it is time for some mild criticism.
Eugene, you shared with us not only your huge ornithological knowledge. As a teacher you taught us also Aboutaleb, gypsies, communists and other criminals.
That you are an expert in birdwatching is obvious. But as an expert you may also know that there is often something special with experts: they tend to be a little bit foolish as well. An expert knows one goal, one direction and he or she expects everybody to follow that direction. That of course is a bit foolish.
You remind me of a famous British poem that reads as follows:
Sir, I admit your general rule
that every poet is a fool,
but you yourself may serve to show it
that every fool is not a poet.
I want to emphasize that you are the poet. The poet as you know is master of the word and therefore he is master of the universe. You are master of the ornithological part of the universe. We admire you for that and we are grateful for the lessons we learned. But now for the foolish part. I summarize our feelings in another poem.
When you elaborate on criminals and crime
I dream of poetry and rhyme,
And when you bring in the gipsy
I think you may be a bit tipsy.
But when you demonstrate your ornithological expertise
We think: he really is our éminence grise.