Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. and, if you have an idle hour to spare,
  2. rest here beneath the shade. Hither the steers
  3. will through the meadows, of their own free will,
  4. untended come to drink. Here Mincius hath
  5. with tender rushes rimmed his verdant banks,
  6. and from yon sacred oak with busy hum
  7. the bees are swarming.” What was I to do?
  8. No Phyllis or Alcippe left at home
  9. had I, to shelter my new-weaned lambs,
  10. and no slight matter was a singing-bout
  11. 'twixt Corydon and Thyrsis. Howsoe'er,
  12. I let my business wait upon their sport.
  13. So they began to sing, voice answering voice
  14. in strains alternate—for alternate strains
  15. the Muses then were minded to recall—
  16. first Corydon, then Thyrsis in reply.
    17. CORYDON
    1. “Libethrian Nymphs, who are my heart's delight,
    2. grant me, as doth my Codrus, so to sing—
    3. next to Apollo he—or if to this
    4. we may not all attain, my tuneful pipe