Eclogues

Virgil

Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.

  1. Gallus lay dying? for neither did the slopes
  2. of Pindus or Parnassus stay you then,
  3. no, nor Aonian Aganippe. Him
  4. even the laurels and the tamarisks wept;
  5. for him, outstretched beneath a lonely rock,
  6. wept pine-clad Maenalus, and the flinty crags
  7. of cold Lycaeus. The sheep too stood around—
  8. of us they feel no shame, poet divine;
  9. nor of the flock be thou ashamed: even fair
  10. Adonis by the rivers fed his sheep—
  11. came shepherd too, and swine-herd footing slow,
  12. and, from the winter-acorns dripping-wet
  13. Menalcas. All with one accord exclaim:
  14. “From whence this love of thine?” Apollo came;
  15. “Gallus, art mad?” he cried, “thy bosom's care
  16. another love is following.” Therewithal
  17. Silvanus came, with rural honours crowned;
  18. the flowering fennels and tall lilies shook
  19. before him. Yea, and our own eyes beheld
  20. pan, god of Arcady, with blood-red juice