At the request of a good friend on another board I relay this for your views...

Question: Which sounds best?

I think swallow:summer is the more allusive literary combo;
but this is the more evocative expression for me: one robin does not a winter end.

One swallow doesn't make a summer is the version I'm familiar with. A quick google, however, traces it back to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics:

[16] Moreover, to be happy takes a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day; and similarly one day or a brief period of happinessdoes not make a man supremely blessed5 and happy.


http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1098a+1

I notice this translation:
http://www.mikrosapoplous.gr/aristotle/nicom1a.htm#I7 says But we must add 'in a complete life.' For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.

But the LSJ, is quite adamant that 'ear' means spring. http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z4E8217BC.

Of course, the difference between spring and summer may reflect the difference between the English and Greek climates.

Incidentally, how does one view the results of the poll? I voted but still can't see them.

Thanks for that clarity, Bing. hm, can't understand why the poll doesn't show for you - try again?

I choose the third, but what I'm waiting for is TEd to say something about springs and swallows.

> springs and swallows.

well...

It's swallows and summer for me too. We say the exact same thing in Spanish. And sparrows are year-round dwellers where I live.

When the swallows/ come baaaack to Capastrano/ this summer
That's the day/ my true loooove/ returns to me/ uh, this summer.

Hey, the polling aparatus works and this time the pollees are right!
I think.

We juke a paralell rendering in 'de hood; we jive...

"One monkey don't stop no show"

Dig?