Georgics
Virgil
Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.
- And now, both leaders from the field recalled,
- Who hath the worser seeming, do to death,
- Lest royal waste wax burdensome, but let
- His better lord it on the empty throne.
- One with gold-burnished flakes will shine like fire,
- For twofold are their kinds, the nobler he,
- Of peerless front and lit with flashing scales;
- That other, from neglect and squalor foul,
- Drags slow a cumbrous belly. As with kings,
- So too with people, diverse is their mould,
- Some rough and loathly, as when the wayfarer
- Scapes from a whirl of dust, and scorched with heat
- Spits forth the dry grit from his parched mouth:
- The others shine forth and flash with lightning-gleam,
- Their backs all blazoned with bright drops of gold
- Symmetric: this the likelier breed; from these,
- When heaven brings round the season, thou shalt strain
- Sweet honey, nor yet so sweet as passing clear,
- And mellowing on the tongue the wine-god's fire.