Eclogues

Virgil

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

  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
  2. the names of kings upon their petals writ,
  3. and you shall have fair Phyllis for your own.”
PALAEMON
  1. Not mine betwixt such rivals to decide:
  2. you well deserve the heifer, so does he,
  3. with all who either fear the sweets of love,
  4. or taste its bitterness. Now, boys, shut off
  5. the sluices, for the fields have drunk their fill.