The Bucolics and Ecloges [English] | Page 9

Fie for shame!
Go

home, my cattle, from your grazing go!"
CORYDON
"Ye mossy springs, and grass more soft than sleep,

And arbute green with thin shade sheltering you,
Ward off the
solstice from my flock, for now
Comes on the burning summer, now
the buds
Upon the limber vine-shoot 'gin to swell."
THYRSIS
"Here is a hearth, and resinous logs, here fire
Unstinted,
and doors black with ceaseless smoke.
Here heed we Boreas' icy
breath as much
As the wolf heeds the number of the flock,
Or
furious rivers their restraining banks."
CORYDON
"The junipers and prickly chestnuts stand,
And 'neath
each tree lie strewn their several fruits,
Now the whole world is
smiling, but if fair
Alexis from these hill-slopes should away,
Even
the rivers you would ; see run dry."
THYRSIS
"The field is parched, the grass-blades thirst to death
In
the faint air; Liber hath grudged the hills
His vine's o'er-shadowing:
should my Phyllis come,
Green will be all the grove, and Jupiter

Descend in floods of fertilizing rain."
CORYDON
"The poplar doth Alcides hold most dear,
The vine
Iacchus, Phoebus his own bays,
And Venus fair the myrtle:
therewithal
Phyllis doth hazels love, and while she loves,
Myrtle
nor bay the hazel shall out-vie."
THYRSIS
"Ash in the forest is most beautiful,
Pine in the garden,
poplar by the stream,
Fir on the mountain-height; but if more oft

Thou'ldst come to me, fair Lycidas, to thee
Both forest-ash, and
garden-pine should bow."
MELIBOEUS
These I remember, and how Thyrsis strove
For
victory in vain. From that time forth
Is Corydon still Corydon with
us.

ECLOGUE VIII
TO POLLIO DAMON ALPHESIBOEUS
Of Damon and Alphesiboeus now,
Those shepherd-singers at whose
rival strains
The heifer wondering forgot to graze,
The lynx stood
awe-struck, and the flowing streams,
Unwonted loiterers, stayed their
course to hearHow
Damon and Alphesiboeus sang
Their pastoral
ditties, will I tell the tale.
Thou, whether broad Timavus' rocky banks
Thou now art passing, or
dost skirt the shore
Of the Illyrian main,- will ever dawn
That day
when I thy deeds may celebrate,
Ever that day when through the
whole wide world
I may renown thy verse- that verse alone
Of
Sophoclean buskin worthy found?
With thee began, to thee shall end,
the strain.
Take thou these songs that owe their birth to thee,
And
deign around thy temples to let creep
This ivy-chaplet 'twixt the
conquering bays.
Scarce had night's chilly shade forsook the sky
What time to nibbling
sheep the dewy grass
Tastes sweetest, when, on his smooth
shepherd-staff
Of olive leaning, Damon thus began.
DAMON
"Rise, Lucifer, and, heralding the light,
Bring in the
genial day, while I make moan
Fooled by vain passion for a faithless
bride,
For Nysa, and with this my dying breath
Call on the gods,
though little it besteadThe
gods who heard her vows and heeded not.
"Begin, my flute, with me Maenalian lays.
Ever hath Maenalus his
murmuring groves
And whispering pines, and ever hears the songs

Of love-lorn shepherds, and of Pan, who first
Brooked not the tuneful
reed should idle lie.
"Begin, my flute, with me Maenalian lays.
Nysa to Mopsus given!
what may not then
We lovers look for? soon shall we see mate


Griffins with mares, and in the coming age
Shy deer and hounds
together come to drink.
"Begin, my flute, with me Maenalian lays.
Now, Mopsus, cut new
torches, for they bring
Your bride along; now, bridegroom, scatter
nuts:
Forsaking Oeta mounts the evening star!
"Begin, my flute, with me Maenalian lays.
O worthy of thy mate,
while all men else
Thou scornest, and with loathing dost behold
My
shepherd's pipe, my goats, my shaggy brow,
And untrimmed beard,
nor deem'st that any god
For mortal doings hath regard or care.
"Begin, my flute, with me Maenalian lays.
Once with your mother, in
our orchard-garth,
A little maid I saw you- I your guidePlucking
the
dewy apples. My twelfth year
I scarce had entered, and could barely
reach
The brittle boughs. I looked, and I was lost;
A sudden frenzy
swept my wits away.
"Begin, my flute, with me Maenalian lays.
Now know I what Love is:
'mid savage rocks
Tmaros or Rhodope brought forth the boy,
Or
Garamantes in earth's utmost boundsNo
kin of ours, nor of our blood
begot.
"Begin, my flute, with me Maenalian lays.
Fierce Love it was once
steeled a mother's heart
With her own offspring's blood her hands to
imbrue:
Mother, thou too wert cruel; say wert thou
More cruel,
mother, or more ruthless he?
Ruthless the boy, thou, mother, cruel
too.
"Begin, my flute, with me Maenalian lays.
Now let the wolf turn tail
and fly the sheep,
Tough oaks bear golden apples, alder-trees

Bloom with narcissus-flower, the tamarisk
Sweat with rich amber,
and the screech-owl vie
In singing with the swan: let Tityrus
Be
Orpheus, Orpheus in the forest-glade,
Arion 'mid his dolphins on the
deep.

"Begin, my flute, with me Maenalian lays.
Yea, be the whole earth to
mid-ocean turned!
Farewell, ye woodlands I from the tall peak
Of
yon aerial rock will headlong plunge
Into the billows: this my latest
gift,
From dying lips bequeathed thee, see thou keep.
Cease now,
my flute, now cease Maenalian lays."
Thus Damon: but do ye, Pierian MaidsWe
cannot all do all things-
tell me how
Alphesiboeus to his strain replied.
ALPHESIBOEUS
"Bring water, and with soft wool-fillet bind

These altars round about,