Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. Here from distempered heavens erewhile arose
  2. A piteous season, with the full fierce heat
  3. Of autumn glowed, and cattle-kindreds all
  4. And all wild creatures to destruction gave,
  5. Tainted the pools, the fodder charged with bane.
  6. Nor simple was the way of death, but when
  7. Hot thirst through every vein impelled had drawn
  8. Their wretched limbs together, anon o'erflowed
  9. A watery flux, and all their bones piecemeal
  10. Sapped by corruption to itself absorbed.
  11. Oft in mid sacrifice to heaven—the white
  12. Wool-woven fillet half wreathed about his brow—
  13. Some victim, standing by the altar, there
  14. Betwixt the loitering carles a-dying fell:
  15. Or, if betimes the slaughtering priest had struck,
  16. Nor with its heaped entrails blazed the pile,
  17. Nor seer to seeker thence could answer yield;
  18. Nay, scarce the up-stabbing knife with blood was stained,
  19. Scarce sullied with thin gore the surface-sand.
  20. Hence die the calves in many a pasture fair,
  21. Or at full cribs their lives' sweet breath resign;
  22. Hence on the fawning dog comes madness, hence
  23. Racks the sick swine a gasping cough that chokes
  24. With swelling at the jaws: the conquering steed,
  25. Uncrowned of effort and heedless of the sward,
  26. Faints, turns him from the springs, and paws the earth
  27. With ceaseless hoof: low droop his ears, wherefrom
  28. Bursts fitful sweat, a sweat that waxes cold
  29. Upon the dying beast; the skin is dry,
  30. And rigidly repels the handler's touch.
  31. These earlier signs they give that presage doom.
  32. But, if the advancing plague 'gin fiercer grow,
  33. Then are their eyes all fire, deep-drawn their breath,
  34. At times groan-laboured: with long sobbing heave
  35. Their lowest flanks; from either nostril streams
  36. Black blood; a rough tongue clogs the obstructed jaws.
  37. 'Twas helpful through inverted horn to pour
  38. Draughts of the wine-god down; sole way it seemed
  39. To save the dying: soon this too proved their bane,
  40. And, reinvigorate but with frenzy's fire,
  41. Even at death's pinch—the gods some happier fate
  42. Deal to the just, such madness to their foes—
  43. Each with bared teeth his own limbs mangling tore.
  44. See! as he smokes beneath the stubborn share,
  45. The bull drops, vomiting foam-dabbled gore,
  46. And heaves his latest groans. Sad goes the swain,
  47. Unhooks the steer that mourns his fellow's fate,
  48. And in mid labour leaves the plough-gear fast.
  49. Nor tall wood's shadow, nor soft sward may stir
  50. That heart's emotion, nor rock-channelled flood,
  51. More pure than amber speeding to the plain:
  52. But see! his flanks fail under him, his eyes
  53. Are dulled with deadly torpor, and his neck
  54. Sinks to the earth with drooping weight.