Geometry in the Dust, an excerpt
The role of animals in the city is, believe me, just as delicate a question: it takes diplomacy to understand and manage it, you can’t just open the gates of the royal menagerie and let the wildcats out willy-nilly, let out the jackdaws and sparrowhawks, the apes, the parrots, the carps and the camels, the salukis and the thoroughbreds which will constitute your patrimony. Distinction and a sense of harmony are in every circumstance vital to the accomplishment of our urban project: the royal architecture is a task that calls for a procurer’s tact, since it designates you as master of romances and meetings, it makes you responsible for all the rendezvous and unforeseen confrontations; it requires a matchmaker’s instinct, the gardener’s patience and, especially when it comes to the hen-houses, a decorator’s impeccable taste.
From Pierre Senges‘ Geometry in the Dust, translated by Jacob Siefring.