Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. Cydonian arrows from a Parthian bow.—
  2. as if my madness could find healing thus,
  3. or that god soften at a mortal's grief!
  4. Now neither Hamadryads, no, nor songs
  5. delight me more: ye woods, away with you!
  6. No pangs of ours can change him; not though we
  7. in the mid-frost should drink of Hebrus' stream,
  8. and in wet winters face Sithonian snows,
  9. or, when the bark of the tall elm-tree bole
  10. of drought is dying, should, under Cancer's Sign,
  11. in Aethiopian deserts drive our flocks.
  12. Love conquers all things; yield we too to love!”
  13. These songs, Pierian Maids, shall it suffice
  14. your poet to have sung, the while he sat,
  15. and of slim mallow wove a basket fine:
  16. to Gallus ye will magnify their worth,
  17. Gallus, for whom my love grows hour by hour,
  18. as the green alder shoots in early Spring.
  19. Come, let us rise: the shade is wont to be
  20. baneful to singers; baneful is the shade