Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. There's a cold adder lurking in the grass.”
MENALCAS
  1. “Forbear, my sheep, to tread too near the brink;
  2. yon bank is ill to trust to; even now
  3. the ram himself, see, dries his dripping fleece!”
DAMOETAS
  1. “Back with the she-goats, Tityrus, grazing there
  2. so near the river! I, when time shall serve,
  3. will take them all, and wash them in the pool.”
MENALCAS
  1. “Boys, get your sheep together; if the heat,
  2. as late it did, forestall us with the milk,
  3. vainly the dried-up udders shall we wring.”
DAMOETAS
  1. “How lean my bull amid the fattening vetch!
  2. Alack! alack! for herdsman and for herd!
  3. It is the self-same love that wastes us both.”
MENALCAS
  1. “These truly—nor is even love the cause—
  2. scarce have the flesh to keep their bones together
  3. some evil eye my lambkins hath bewitched.”
DAMOETAS
  1. “Say in what clime—and you shall be withal
  2. my great Apollo—the whole breadth of heaven
  3. opens no wider than three ells to view.”
MENALCAS
  1. “Say in what country grow such flowers as bear