Eclogues
Virgil
Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.
- Who owns the flock, Damoetas? Meliboeus?
- Nay, they are Aegon's sheep, of late by him
- committed to my care.
- O every way
- unhappy sheep, unhappy flock! while he
- still courts Neaera, fearing lest her choice
- should fall on me, this hireling shepherd here
- wrings hourly twice their udders, from the flock
- filching the life-juice, from the lambs their milk.
- Hold! not so ready with your jeers at men!
- We know who once, and in what shrine with you—
- the he-goats looked aside—the light nymphs laughed—
- Ay, then, I warrant, when they saw me slash
- micon's young vines and trees with spiteful hook.
- Or here by these old beeches, when you broke
- the bow and arrows of Damon; for you chafed
- when first you saw them given to the boy,
- cross-grained Menalcas, ay, and had you not
- done him some mischief, would have chafed to death.
- With thieves so daring, what can masters do?