Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. And now, both leaders from the field recalled,
  2. Who hath the worser seeming, do to death,
  3. Lest royal waste wax burdensome, but let
  4. His better lord it on the empty throne.
  5. One with gold-burnished flakes will shine like fire,
  6. For twofold are their kinds, the nobler he,
  7. Of peerless front and lit with flashing scales;
  8. That other, from neglect and squalor foul,
  9. Drags slow a cumbrous belly. As with kings,
  10. So too with people, diverse is their mould,
  11. Some rough and loathly, as when the wayfarer
  12. Scapes from a whirl of dust, and scorched with heat
  13. Spits forth the dry grit from his parched mouth:
  14. The others shine forth and flash with lightning-gleam,
  15. Their backs all blazoned with bright drops of gold
  16. Symmetric: this the likelier breed; from these,
  17. When heaven brings round the season, thou shalt strain
  18. Sweet honey, nor yet so sweet as passing clear,
  19. And mellowing on the tongue the wine-god's fire.
  1. But when the swarms fly aimlessly abroad,
  2. Disport themselves in heaven and spurn their cells,
  3. Leaving the hive unwarmed, from such vain play
  4. Must you refrain their volatile desires,
  5. Nor hard the task: tear off the monarchs' wings;
  6. While these prove loiterers, none beside will dare
  7. Mount heaven, or pluck the standards from the camp.
  8. Let gardens with the breath of saffron flowers
  9. Allure them, and the lord of Hellespont,
  10. Priapus, wielder of the willow-scythe,
  11. Safe in his keeping hold from birds and thieves.
  12. And let the man to whom such cares are dear
  13. Himself bring thyme and pine-trees from the heights,
  14. And strew them in broad belts about their home;
  15. No hand but his the blistering task should ply,
  16. Plant the young slips, or shed the genial showers.
  1. And I myself, were I not even now
  2. Furling my sails, and, nigh the journey's end,
  3. Eager to turn my vessel's prow to shore,
  4. Perchance would sing what careful husbandry
  5. Makes the trim garden smile; of Paestum too,
  6. Whose roses bloom and fade and bloom again;
  7. How endives glory in the streams they drink,
  8. And green banks in their parsley, and how the gourd
  9. Twists through the grass and rounds him to paunch;
  10. Nor of Narcissus had my lips been dumb,
  11. That loiterer of the flowers, nor supple-stemmed
  12. Acanthus, with the praise of ivies pale,
  13. And myrtles clinging to the shores they love.
  14. For 'neath the shade of tall Oebalia's towers,
  15. Where dark Galaesus laves the yellowing fields,
  16. An old man once I mind me to have seen—
  17. From Corycus he came—to whom had fallen
  18. Some few poor acres of neglected land,
  19. And they nor fruitful' neath the plodding steer,
  20. Meet for the grazing herd, nor good for vines.
  21. Yet he, the while his meagre garden-herbs
  22. Among the thorns he planted, and all round
  23. White lilies, vervains, and lean poppy set,
  24. In pride of spirit matched the wealth of kings,
  25. And home returning not till night was late,
  26. With unbought plenty heaped his board on high.
  27. He was the first to cull the rose in spring,
  28. He the ripe fruits in autumn; and ere yet
  29. Winter had ceased in sullen ire to rive
  30. The rocks with frost, and with her icy bit
  31. Curb in the running waters, there was he
  32. Plucking the rathe faint hyacinth, while he chid
  33. Summer's slow footsteps and the lagging West.
  34. Therefore he too with earliest brooding bees
  35. And their full swarms o'erflowed, and first was he
  36. To press the bubbling honey from the comb;
  37. Lime-trees were his, and many a branching pine;
  38. And all the fruits wherewith in early bloom
  39. The orchard-tree had clothed her, in full tale
  40. Hung there, by mellowing autumn perfected.
  41. He too transplanted tall-grown elms a-row,
  42. Time-toughened pear, thorns bursting with the plum
  43. And plane now yielding serviceable shade
  44. For dry lips to drink under: but these things,
  45. Shut off by rigorous limits, I pass by,
  46. And leave for others to sing after me.