Georgics
Virgil
Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.
- Come, then, I will unfold the natural powers
- Great Jove himself upon the bees bestowed,
- The boon for which, led by the shrill sweet strains
- Of the Curetes and their clashing brass,
- They fed the King of heaven in Dicte's cave.
- Alone of all things they receive and hold
- Community of offspring, and they house
- Together in one city, and beneath
- The shelter of majestic laws they live;
- And they alone fixed home and country know,
- And in the summer, warned of coming cold,
- Make proof of toil, and for the general store
- Hoard up their gathered harvesting. For some
- Watch o'er the victualling of the hive, and these
- By settled order ply their tasks afield;
- And some within the confines of their home
- Plant firm the comb's first layer, Narcissus' tear,
- And sticky gum oozed from the bark of trees,
- Then set the clinging wax to hang therefrom.
- Others the while lead forth the full-grown young,
- Their country's hope, and others press and pack
- The thrice repured honey, and stretch their cells
- To bursting with the clear-strained nectar sweet.
- Some, too, the wardship of the gates befalls,
- Who watch in turn for showers and cloudy skies,
- Or ease returning labourers of their load,
- Or form a band and from their precincts drive
- The drones, a lazy herd. How glows the work!
- How sweet the honey smells of perfumed thyme
- Like the Cyclopes, when in haste they forge
- From the slow-yielding ore the thunderbolts,
- Some from the bull's-hide bellows in and out
- Let the blasts drive, some dip i' the water-trough
- The sputtering metal: with the anvil's weight
- Groans Etna: they alternately in time
- With giant strength uplift their sinewy arms,
- Or twist the iron with the forceps' grip—
- Not otherwise, to measure small with great,
- The love of getting planted in their breasts
- Goads on the bees, that haunt old Cecrops' heights,
- Each in his sphere to labour. The old have charge
- To keep the town, and build the walled combs,
- And mould the cunning chambers; but the youth,
- Their tired legs packed with thyme, come labouring home
- Belated, for afar they range to feed
- On arbutes and the grey-green willow-leaves,
- And cassia and the crocus blushing red,
- Glue-yielding limes, and hyacinths dusky-eyed.
- One hour for rest have all, and one for toil:
- With dawn they hurry from the gates—no room
- For loiterers there: and once again, when even
- Now bids them quit their pasturing on the plain,
- Then homeward make they, then refresh their strength:
- A hum arises: hark! they buzz and buzz
- About the doors and threshold; till at length
- Safe laid to rest they hush them for the night,
- And welcome slumber laps their weary limbs.
- But from the homestead not too far they fare,
- When showers hang like to fall, nor, east winds nigh,
- Confide in heaven, but 'neath the city walls
- Safe-circling fetch them water, or essay
- Brief out-goings, and oft weigh-up tiny stones,
- As light craft ballast in the tossing tide,
- Wherewith they poise them through the cloudy vast.
- This law of life, too, by the bees obeyed,
- Will move thy wonder, that nor sex with sex
- Yoke they in marriage, nor yield their limbs to love,
- Nor know the pangs of labour, but alone
- From leaves and honied herbs, the mothers, each,
- Gather their offspring in their mouths, alone
- Supply new kings and pigmy commonwealth,
- And their old court and waxen realm repair.
- Oft, too, while wandering, against jagged stones
- Their wings they fray, and 'neath the burden yield
- Their liberal lives: so deep their love of flowers,
- So glorious deem they honey's proud acquist.
- Therefore, though each a life of narrow span,
- Ne'er stretched to summers more than seven, befalls,
- Yet deathless doth the race endure, and still
- Perennial stands the fortune of their line,
- From grandsire unto grandsire backward told.
- Moreover, not Aegyptus, nor the realm
- Of boundless Lydia, no, nor Parthia's hordes,
- Nor Median Hydaspes, to their king
- Do such obeisance: lives the king unscathed,
- One will inspires the million: is he dead,
- Snapt is the bond of fealty; they themselves
- Ravage their toil-wrought honey, and rend amain
- Their own comb's waxen trellis. He is the lord
- Of all their labour; him with awful eye
- They reverence, and with murmuring throngs surround,
- In crowds attend, oft shoulder him on high,
- Or with their bodies shield him in the fight,
- And seek through showering wounds a glorious death.
- Led by these tokens, and with such traits to guide,
- Some say that unto bees a share is given
- Of the Divine Intelligence, and to drink
- Pure draughts of ether; for God permeates all—
- Earth, and wide ocean, and the vault of heaven—
- From whom flocks, herds, men, beasts of every kind,
- Draw each at birth the fine essential flame;
- Yea, and that all things hence to Him return,
- Brought back by dissolution, nor can death
- Find place: but, each into his starry rank,
- Alive they soar, and mount the heights of heaven.