Georgics
Virgil
Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.
- So Proteus ending plunged into the deep,
- And, where he plunged, beneath the eddying whirl
- Churned into foam the water, and was gone;
- But not Cyrene, who unquestioned thus
- Bespake the trembling listener: “Nay, my son,
- From that sad bosom thou mayst banish care:
- Hence came that plague of sickness, hence the nymphs,
- With whom in the tall woods the dance she wove,
- Wrought on thy bees, alas! this deadly bane.
- Bend thou before the Dell-nymphs, gracious powers:
- Bring gifts, and sue for pardon: they will grant
- Peace to thine asking, and an end of wrath.
- But how to approach them will I first unfold—
- Four chosen bulls of peerless form and bulk,
- That browse to-day the green Lycaean heights,
- Pick from thy herds, as many kine to match,
- Whose necks the yoke pressed never: then for these
- Build up four altars by the lofty fanes,
- And from their throats let gush the victims' blood,
- And in the greenwood leave their bodies lone.
- Then, when the ninth dawn hath displayed its beams,
- To Orpheus shalt thou send his funeral dues,
- Poppies of Lethe, and let slay a sheep
- Coal-black, then seek the grove again, and soon
- For pardon found adore Eurydice
- With a slain calf for victim.”
- No delay:
- The self-same hour he hies him forth to do
- His mother's bidding: to the shrine he came,
- The appointed altars reared, and thither led
- Four chosen bulls of peerless form and bulk,
- With kine to match, that never yoke had known;
- Then, when the ninth dawn had led in the day,
- To Orpheus sent his funeral dues, and sought
- The grove once more. But sudden, strange to tell
- A portent they espy: through the oxen's flesh,
- Waxed soft in dissolution, hark! there hum
- Bees from the belly; the rent ribs overboil
- In endless clouds they spread them, till at last
- On yon tree-top together fused they cling,
- And drop their cluster from the bending boughs.
- So sang I of the tilth of furrowed fields,
- Of flocks and trees, while Caesar's majesty
- Launched forth the levin-bolts of war by deep
- Euphrates, and bare rule o'er willing folk
- Though vanquished, and essayed the heights of heaven.
- I Virgil then, of sweet Parthenope
- The nursling, wooed the flowery walks of peace
- Inglorious, who erst trilled for shepherd-wights
- The wanton ditty, and sang in saucy youth
- Thee, Tityrus, 'neath the spreading beech tree's shade.