You know about swan songs, he would ask them, when swans sing most beautifully just before dying? Swans sing that way because they are looking forward to dying, celebrating their death. The students may well have thought that the swans didn’t sound so celebratory—they may even have realized that they were hearing their teacher’s own swan song—but they tried to hide their tears because they knew that he wanted them to be happy about his death, and they wanted him to be proud of them and regard them as fellow philosophers.
