"Blithe spirits bringing a myriad colours to our gardens, magic, ephemeral wings -- butterflies -- with short life-spans of a week to a few months. But why such an unpoetic name for a delicate daughter of nature? The Germans call them Schmetterlinge , the Russians call them бабочка , the Greek πεταλουδα , the French call them papillons . Perhaps the more congenial, smoother descriptions are the Spanish mariposa and the delicate Dutch vlinder."

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