Eclogues
Virgil
Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.
- harder this clay, this wax the softer grows,
- so by my love may Daphnis; sprinkle meal,
- and with bitumen burn the brittle bays.
- Me Daphnis with his cruelty doth burn,
- I to melt cruel Daphnis burn this bay.
- As when some heifer, seeking for her steer
- through woodland and deep grove, sinks wearied out
- on the green sedge beside a stream, love-lorn,
- nor marks the gathering night that calls her home—
- as pines that heifer, with such love as hers
- may Daphnis pine, and I not care to heal.
- These relics once, dear pledges of himself,
- the traitor left me, which, O earth, to thee
- here on this very threshold I commit—
- pledges that bind him to redeem the debt.
- These herbs of bane to me did Moeris give,
- in Pontus culled, where baneful herbs abound.