Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. First, for the sheep soft pencotes I decree
  2. To browse in, till green summer's swift return;
  3. And that the hard earth under them with straw
  4. And handfuls of the fern be littered deep,
  5. Lest chill of ice such tender cattle harm
  6. With scab and loathly foot-rot. Passing thence
  7. I bid the goats with arbute-leaves be stored,
  8. And served with fresh spring-water, and their pens
  9. Turned southward from the blast, to face the suns
  10. Of winter, when Aquarius' icy beam
  11. Now sinks in showers upon the parting year.
  12. These too no lightlier our protection claim,
  13. Nor prove of poorer service, howsoe'er
  14. Milesian fleeces dipped in Tyrian reds
  15. Repay the barterer; these with offspring teem
  16. More numerous; these yield plenteous store of milk:
  17. The more each dry-wrung udder froths the pail,
  18. More copious soon the teat-pressed torrents flow.
  19. Ay, and on Cinyps' bank the he-goats too
  20. Their beards and grizzled chins and bristling hair
  21. Let clip for camp-use, or as rugs to wrap
  22. Seafaring wretches. But they browse the woods
  23. And summits of Lycaeus, and rough briers,
  24. And brakes that love the highland: of themselves
  25. Right heedfully the she-goats homeward troop
  26. Before their kids, and with plump udders clogged
  27. Scarce cross the threshold. Wherefore rather ye,
  28. The less they crave man's vigilance, be fain
  29. From ice to fend them and from snowy winds;
  30. Bring food and feast them with their branchy fare,
  31. Nor lock your hay-loft all the winter long.
  32. But when glad summer at the west wind's call
  33. Sends either flock to pasture in the glades,
  34. Soon as the day-star shineth, hie we then
  35. To the cool meadows, while the dawn is young,
  36. The grass yet hoary, and to browsing herds
  37. The dew tastes sweetest on the tender sward.
  38. When heaven's fourth hour draws on the thickening drought,
  39. And shrill cicalas pierce the brake with song,
  40. Then at the well-springs bid them, or deep pools,
  41. From troughs of holm-oak quaff the running wave:
  42. But at day's hottest seek a shadowy vale,
  43. Where some vast ancient-timbered oak of Jove
  44. Spreads his huge branches, or where huddling black
  45. Ilex on ilex cowers in awful shade.
  46. Then once more give them water sparingly,
  47. And feed once more, till sunset, when cool eve
  48. Allays the air, and dewy moonbeams slake
  49. The forest glades, with halcyon's song the shore,
  50. And every thicket with the goldfinch rings.