Eclogues
Virgil
Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.
- a little maid I saw you—I your guide—
- plucking the dewy apples. My twelfth year
- I scarce had entered, and could barely reach
- the brittle boughs. I looked, and I was lost;
- a sudden frenzy swept my wits away.
- Now know I what Love is: 'mid savage rocks
- tmaros or Rhodope brought forth the boy,
- or Garamantes in earth's utmost bounds—
- no kin of ours, nor of our blood begot.
- Fierce Love it was once steeled a mother's heart
- with her own offspring's blood her hands to imbrue:
- mother, thou too wert cruel; say wert thou
- more cruel, mother, or more ruthless he?
- Ruthless the boy, thou, mother, cruel too.
- Now let the wolf turn tail and fly the sheep,
- tough oaks bear golden apples, alder-trees
- bloom with narcissus-flower, the tamarisk