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.
  1. What now
  2. Besteads him toil or service? to have turned
  3. The heavy sod with ploughshare? And yet these
  4. Ne'er knew the Massic wine-god's baneful boon,
  5. Nor twice replenished banquets: but on leaves
  6. They fare, and virgin grasses, and their cups
  7. Are crystal springs and streams with running tired,
  8. Their healthful slumbers never broke by care.
  9. Then only, say they, through that country side
  10. For Juno's rites were cattle far to seek,
  11. And ill-matched buffaloes the chariots drew
  12. To their high fanes. So, painfully with rakes
  13. They grub the soil, aye, with their very nails
  14. Dig in the corn-seeds, and with strained neck
  15. O'er the high uplands drag the creaking wains.
  16. No wolf for ambush pries about the pen,
  17. Nor round the flock prowls nightly; pain more sharp
  18. Subdues him: the shy deer and fleet-foot stags
  19. With hounds now wander by the haunts of men
  20. Vast ocean's offspring, and all tribes that swim,
  21. On the shore's confine the wave washes up,
  22. Like shipwrecked bodies: seals, unwonted there,
  23. Flee to the rivers. Now the viper dies,
  24. For all his den's close winding, and with scales
  25. Erect the astonied water-worms. The air
  26. Brooks not the very birds, that headlong fall,
  27. And leave their life beneath the soaring cloud.
  28. Moreover now nor change of fodder serves,
  29. And subtlest cures but injure; then were foiled
  30. The masters, Chiron sprung from Phillyron,
  31. And Amythaon's son Melampus. See!
  32. From Stygian darkness launched into the light
  33. Comes raging pale Tisiphone; she drives
  34. Disease and fear before her, day by day
  35. Still rearing higher that all-devouring head.
  36. With bleat of flocks and lowings thick resound
  37. Rivers and parched banks and sloping heights.
  38. At last in crowds she slaughters them, she chokes
  39. The very stalls with carrion-heaps that rot
  40. In hideous corruption, till men learn
  41. With earth to cover them, in pits to hide.
  42. For e'en the fells are useless; nor the flesh
  43. With water may they purge, or tame with fire,
  44. Nor shear the fleeces even, gnawed through and through
  45. With foul disease, nor touch the putrid webs;
  46. But, had one dared the loathly weeds to try,
  47. Red blisters and an unclean sweat o'erran
  48. His noisome limbs, till, no long tarriance made,
  49. The fiery curse his tainted frame devoured.
  1. Of air-born honey, gift of heaven, I now
  2. Take up the tale. Upon this theme no less
  3. Look thou, Maecenas, with indulgent eye.
  4. A marvellous display of puny powers,
  5. High-hearted chiefs, a nation's history,
  6. Its traits, its bent, its battles and its clans,
  7. All, each, shall pass before you, while I sing.
  8. Slight though the poet's theme, not slight the praise,
  9. So frown not heaven, and Phoebus hear his call.