Eclogues
- 1.1
You, Tityrus, 'neath a broad beech-canopy
- 1.2
reclining, on the slender oat rehearse
- 1.3
your silvan ditties: I from my sweet fields,
- 1.4
and home's familiar bounds, even now depart.
- 1.5
Exiled from home am I; while, Tityrus, you
- 1.6
sit careless in the shade, and, at your call,
- 1.7
“Fair Amaryllis” bid the woods resound.
- 1.8
O Meliboeus, 'twas a god vouchsafed
- 1.9
this ease to us, for him a god will I
- 1.10
deem ever, and from my folds a tender lamb
- 1.11
oft with its life-blood shall his altar stain.
- 1.12
His gift it is that, as your eyes may see,
- 1.13
my kine may roam at large, and I myself
- 1.14
play on my shepherd's pipe what songs I will.
- 1.15
I grudge you not the boon, but marvel more,
- 1.16
such wide confusion fills the country-side.
- 1.17
See, sick at heart I drive my she-goats on,
- 1.18
and this one, O my Tityrus, scarce can lead:
- 1.19
for 'mid the hazel-thicket here but now
- 1.20
she dropped her new-yeaned twins on the bare flint,
- 1.21
hope of the flock—an ill, I mind me well,
- 1.22
which many a time, but for my blinded sense,
- 1.23
the thunder-stricken oak foretold, oft too
- 1.24
from hollow trunk the raven's ominous cry.
- 1.25
But who this god of yours? Come, Tityrus, tell.
- 1.26
The city, Meliboeus, they call Rome,
- 1.27
I, simpleton, deemed like this town of ours,
- 1.28
whereto we shepherds oft are wont to drive
- 1.29
the younglings of the flock: so too I knew
- 1.30
whelps to resemble dogs, and kids their dams,
- 1.31
comparing small with great; but this as far
- 1.32
above all other cities rears her head
- 1.33
as cypress above pliant osier towers.
- 1.34
And what so potent cause took you to Rome?
- 1.35
Freedom, which, though belated, cast at length
- 1.36
her eyes upon the sluggard, when my beard
- 1.37
'gan whiter fall beneath the barber's blade—
- 1.38
cast eyes, I say, and, though long tarrying, came,
- 1.39
now when, from Galatea's yoke released,
- 1.40
I serve but Amaryllis: for I will own,
- 1.41
while Galatea reigned over me, I had
- 1.42
no hope of freedom, and no thought to save.
- 1.43
Though many a victim from my folds went forth,
- 1.44
or rich cheese pressed for the unthankful town,
- 1.45
never with laden hands returned I home.
- 1.46
I used to wonder, Amaryllis, why
- 1.47
you cried to heaven so sadly, and for whom
- 1.48
you left the apples hanging on the trees;
- 1.49
'twas Tityrus was away. Why, Tityrus,
- 1.50
the very pines, the very water-springs,
- 1.51
the very vineyards, cried aloud for you.
- 1.52
What could I do? how else from bonds be freed,
- 1.53
or otherwhere find gods so nigh to aid?
- 1.54
There, Meliboeus, I saw that youth to whom
- 1.55
yearly for twice six days my altars smoke.
- 1.56
There instant answer gave he to my suit,
- 1.57
“Feed, as before, your kine, boys, rear your bulls.”
- 1.58
So in old age, you happy man, your fields
- 1.59
will still be yours, and ample for your need!
- 1.60
Though, with bare stones o'erspread, the pastures all
- 1.61
be choked with rushy mire, your ewes with young
- 1.62
by no strange fodder will be tried, nor hurt
- 1.63
through taint contagious of a neighbouring flock.
- 1.64
Happy old man, who 'mid familiar streams
- 1.65
and hallowed springs, will court the cooling shade!
- 1.66
Here, as of old, your neighbour's bordering hedge,
- 1.67
that feasts with willow-flower the Hybla bees,
- 1.68
shall oft with gentle murmur lull to sleep,
- 1.69
while the leaf-dresser beneath some tall rock
- 1.70
uplifts his song, nor cease their cooings hoarse
- 1.71
the wood-pigeons that are your heart's delight,
- 1.72
nor doves their moaning in the elm-tree top.
- 1.73
Sooner shall light stags, therefore, feed in air,
- 1.74
the seas their fish leave naked on the strand,
- 1.75
germans and Parthians shift their natural bounds,
- 1.76
and these the Arar, those the Tigris drink,
- 1.77
than from my heart his face and memory fade.
- 1.78
But we far hence, to burning Libya some,
- 1.79
some to the Scythian steppes, or thy swift flood,
- 1.80
cretan Oaxes, now must wend our way,
- 1.81
or Britain, from the whole world sundered far.
- 1.82
Ah! shall I ever in aftertime behold
- 1.83
my native bounds—see many a harvest hence
- 1.84
with ravished eyes the lowly turf-roofed cot
- 1.85
where I was king? These fallows, trimmed so fair,
- 1.86
some brutal soldier will possess these fields
- 1.87
an alien master. Ah! to what a pass
- 1.88
has civil discord brought our hapless folk!
- 1.89
For such as these, then, were our furrows sown!
- 1.90
Now, Meliboeus, graft your pears, now set
- 1.91
your vines in order! Go, once happy flock,
- 1.92
my she-goats, go. Never again shall I,
- 1.93
stretched in green cave, behold you from afar
- 1.94
hang from the bushy rock; my songs are sung;
- 1.95
never again will you, with me to tend,
- 1.96
on clover-flower, or bitter willows, browse.
- 1.97
Yet here, this night, you might repose with me,
- 1.98
on green leaves pillowed: apples ripe have I,
- 1.99
soft chestnuts, and of curdled milk enow.
- 1.100
And, see, the farm-roof chimneys smoke afar,
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