Eclogues
Virgil
Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.
- Matched with a heifer, who would prate of cups?
- You shall not balk me now; where'er you bid,
- I shall be with you; only let us have
- for auditor—or see, to serve our turn,
- yonder Palaemon comes! In singing-bouts
- i'll see you play the challenger no more.
- Out then with what you have; I shall not shrink,
- nor budge for any man: only do you,
- neighbour Palaemon, with your whole heart's skill—
- for it is no slight matter—play your part.
- Say on then, since on the greensward we sit,
- and now is burgeoning both field and tree;
- now is the forest green, and now the year
- at fairest. Do you first, Damoetas, sing,
- then you, Menalcas, in alternate strain:
- alternate strains are to the Muses dear.
- “From Jove the Muse began; Jove filleth all,
- makes the earth fruitful, for my songs hath care.”
- “Me Phoebus loves; for Phoebus his own gifts,
- bays and sweet-blushing hyacinths, I keep.”