Calpurnius Siculus: T. CALPVRNIUS SICVLUS

Nondum solis equos declinis mitigat aestas,
quamuis et madidis incumbant prela racemis
et spument rauco feruentia musta susurro.
cernis ut ecce pater quas tradidit, Ornyte, uaccae
molle sub hirsuta latus exsplicuere genista?
nos quoque uicinis cur non succedimus umbris?

Not yet does the declining summer mitigate the sun’s horses,
although even the presses lean upon dripping clusters,
and the fermenting must foams with a hoarse whisper.
do you see how—look— the cows, Ornyte, which father has handed over,
have stretched their soft flank beneath the shaggy broom?
why do we not also go under the neighboring shades?

torrida cur solo defendimus ora galero?
Hoc potius, frater Corydon, nemus, antra petamus
ista patris Fauni, graciles ubi pinea denset
silua comas rapidoque caput leuat obuia soli,
bullantes ubi fagus aquas radice sub ipsa
protegit et ramis errantibus implicat umbras.
Quo me cumque uocas, sequor, Ornyte; nam mea Leuce,
dum negat amplexus nocturnaque gaudia nobis,
peruia cornigeri fecit sacraria Fauni.

why do we defend our torrid faces with a hat alone?
This rather, brother Corydon, let us seek the grove, the caves
those of Father Faunus, where the pine-wood thickens slender tresses
and lifts its head to meet the rapid sun,
where the beech shelters the bubbling waters beneath its very root
and with wandering branches entwines the shades.
Wherever you call me, I follow, Ornyte; for my Leuce,
while she denies to us embraces and nocturnal joys,
has made the shrines of horn-bearing Faunus passable.

prome igitur calamos et si qua recondita seruas.
nec tibi defuerit mea fistula, quam mihi nuper
matura docilis compegit harundine Ladon.
Et iam captatae pariter successimus umbrae.

bring forth, then, the reeds, and whatever hidden things you keep.
nor shall my pipe be lacking for you, which lately for me
Ladon, adept, fitted together with mature reed.
And already we have alike gained the sought-for shade.

sed quaenam sacra descripta est pagina fago,
quam modo nescio quis properanti falce notauit?
aspicis ut uirides etiam nunc littera rimas
seruet et arenti nondum se laxet hiatu?
Ornyte, fer propius tua lumina: tu potes alto
cortice descriptos citius percurrere uersus;
nam tibi longa satis pater internodia largus
procerumque dedit mater non inuida corpus.

but what sacred page has been inscribed on the beech,
which just now some I-know-not-who marked with a hurrying sickle?
do you see how the letter even now keeps the green cracks
and does not yet loosen itself in an arid yawning?
Ornyte, bring your eyes nearer: you can more quickly
run through the verses described on the high bark;
for to you a generous father gave sufficiently long internodes,
and a mother, not envious, gave a tall body.

Non pastor, non haec triuiali more uiator,
sed deus ipse canit: nihil armentale resultat,
nec montana sacros distinguunt iubila uersus.
Mira refers; sed rumpe moras oculosque sequaci
quam primum nobis diuinum perlege carmen.
"Qui iuga, qui silua tueor, satus aethere Faunus,
haec populis uentura cano: iuuat arbore sacra
laeta patefactis incidere carmina fatis.

Not a shepherd, not a wayfarer in trivial fashion,
but the god himself sings: no cattle-cry resounds,
nor do mountain jubilations punctuate the sacred verses.
You tell marvels; but break off delays and with a following eye
read through for us as soon as possible the divine song.
"I, who watch the ridges, who the forest, Faunus begotten of Aether,
sing these things that will come for peoples: it delights me on the sacred tree
to incise joyful songs, the fates laid open.

uos o praecipue nemorum gaudete coloni,
uos populi gaudete mei: licet omne uagetur
securo custode pecus nocturnaque pastor
claudere fraxinea nolit praesepia crate:
non tamen insidias praedator ouilibus ullas
afferet aut laxis abiget iumenta capistris.
aurea secura cum pace renascitur aetas
et redit ad terras tandem squalore situque
alma Themis positi iuuenemque beata sequuntur
saecula, maternis causam qui uicit Iulis.
dum populos deus ipse reget, dabit impia uictas
post tergum Bellona manus spoliataque telis
in sua uesanos torquebit uiscera morsus
et, modo quae toto ciuilia distulit orbe,
secum bella geret: nullos iam Roma Philippos
deflebit, nullos ducet captiua triumphos;
omnia Tartareo subigentur carcere bella
immergentque caput tenebris lucemque timebunt.

you, O settlers of the groves, rejoice especially,
you, my peoples, rejoice: let all the herd roam
with a safe guardian, and let the shepherd by night
be unwilling to close the stalls with an ash-wood lattice:
nevertheless no marauder will bring any ambushes to the sheepfolds
or drive off the beasts of burden with loosened halters.
a golden age is reborn with care-free peace,
and at last, with squalor and long neglect set aside, kindly Themis
returns to the lands, and the blessed ages follow the youth
who won the cause for the maternal Julii.
while God himself shall rule the peoples, impious Bellona
will give her hands conquered behind her back, and stripped of weapons
she will twist mad bites against her own vitals,
and she, who just now spread civil wars through the whole world,
will wage wars with herself: Rome will no longer weep over any Philippi,
nor, a captive, will she lead triumphs; all wars will be subdued
under the Tartarean prison and will plunge their head in darkness and fear the light.

candida pax aderit; nec solum candida uultu,
qualis saepe fuit quae libera Marte professo,
quae domito procul hoste tamen grassantibus armis
publica diffudit tacito discordia ferro:
omne procul uitium simulatae cedere pacis
iussit et insanos Clementia contudit enses.
nulla catenati feralis pompa senatus
carnificum lassabit opus, nec carcere pleno
infelix raros numerabit Curia patres.
plena quies aderit, quae stricti nescia ferri
altera Saturni referet Latialia regna,
altera regna Numae, qui primus ouantia caede
agmina, Romuleis et adhuc ardentia castris
pacis opus docuit iussitque silentibus armis
inter sacra tubas, non inter bella, sonare.

bright-white Peace will be at hand; nor merely bright in visage,
such as it often was with Mars openly professed,
which, though the foe was subdued far away, yet with arms marauding
public Discord poured forth with silent steel:
she has ordered every vice of simulated Peace to withdraw far off,
and Clemency has crushed the frenzied swords.
no funereal procession of a fettered senate
will weary the work of the executioners, nor, with the prison full,
will the unhappy Curia count its fathers, few and far between.
full repose will be at hand, which, unacquainted with drawn steel,
will recall another Latian reign of Saturn,
another reign of Numa, who first the ranks exulting in slaughter,
and still burning with the Romulean camps,
taught the work of peace, and ordered, with arms silent,
the trumpets to sound amid sacred rites, not amid wars.

iam nec adumbrati faciem mercatus honoris
nec uacuos tacitus fasces et inane tribunal
accipiet consul; sed legibus omne reductis
ius aderit, moremque fori uultumque priore
reddet et afflictum melior deus auferet aeuum.
exultet quaecumque notum gens ima iacentem
erectumue colit boream, quaecumque uel ortu
uel patet occasu medioue sub aethere feruit.
cernitis ut puro nox iam uicesima caelo
fulgeat et placida radiantem luce cometem
proferat?

now neither the adumbrated semblance of bargained-for honor
nor the empty, silent fasces and the vacant tribunal
will the consul receive; but with the laws restored,
all right/justice will be present, and it will render the custom of the forum and its prior
countenance, and a better deity will remove the afflicted age.
let whatever nation exult that inhabits the well-known North
whether it reveres the North lying low or upright, whatever land either to the rising
or lies open to the setting, and seethes beneath the mid aether.
do you perceive how now on the twentieth night in a clear sky
it shines, and brings forth a comet gleaming with placid light?

ut liquidum niteat sine uulnere plenus?
numquid utrumque polum, sicut solet, igne cruento
spargit et ardenti scintillat sanguine lampas?
at quondam non talis erat, cum Caesare rapto
indixit miseris fatalia ciuibus arma.

that it may shine, full and limpid, without wound?
surely the lamp does not, as it is wont, sprinkle both poles with bloody fire
and scintillate with burning blood?
but once it was not such, when, with Caesar snatched away,
it declared fatal arms to the wretched citizens.

scilicet ipse deus Romanae pondera molis
fortibus excipiet sic inconcussa lacertis,
ut neque translati sonitu fragor intonet orbis
nec prius ex meritis defunctos Roma penates
censeat, occasus nisi cum respexerit ortus."
Ornyte, iam dudum uelut ipso numine plenum
me quatit et mixtus subit inter gaudia terror.
sed bona facundi ueneremur numina Fauni.
carmina, quae nobis deus obtulit ipse canenda,
dicamus teretique sonum modulemur auena:
forsitan augustas feret haec Meliboeus ad aures.

Surely the god himself will take up the weights of the Roman mass
with strong, thus unshaken, upper arms,
so that neither will a crash thunder with the sound of a shifted world,
nor will Rome sooner reckon the departed Penates from their merits
unless the setting has looked back at the rising."
Ornyte, for some time now it has shaken me, as if filled with the very numen,
and a mingled fear steals upon me amid joys.
but let us venerate the good numina of eloquent Faunus.
the songs which the god himself has offered to us to be sung,
let us speak, and let us modulate the sound on the well-turned oaten reed:
perhaps Meliboeus will bear these to august ears.

BVCOLICA - II

BUCOLICS - 2

Intactam Crocalen puer Astacus et puer Idas,
Idas lanigeri dominus gregis, Astacus horti,
dilexere diu, formosus uterque nec impar
uoce sonans. hi cum terras grauis ureret aestas,
ad gelidos fontes et easdem forte sub umbras
conueniunt dulcique simul contendere cantu
pignoribusque parant: placet, hic ne uellera septem,
ille sui uictus ne messem uindicet horti;
et magnum certamen erat sub iudice Thyrsi.
adfuit omne genus pecudum, genus omne ferarum
et quodcumque uagis altum ferit aera pennis.

Untouched Crocale, the boy Astacus and the boy Idas,
Idas, master of the wool-bearing flock, Astacus of the garden,
loved for a long time, each handsome and not unequal
in the sounding of voice. These, when heavy summer was burning the lands,
to the chilly springs and by those same shades by chance
come together, and to contend at once with sweet song
and with pledges they prepare: it pleases—shall this one claim seven fleeces,
or that one lay claim to the harvest of his garden for his livelihood;
and a great contest was under the judge Thyrsis.
adfuit every kind of cattle, every kind of wild beast,
and whatever strikes the high air with wandering wings.

conuenit umbrosa quicumque sub ilice lentas
pascit oues, Faunusque pater Satyrique bicornes;
adfuerunt sicco Dryades pede, Naides udo,
et tenuere suos properantia flumina cursus;
desistunt tremulis incurrere frondibus Euri
altaque per totos fecere silentia montes:
omnia cessabant, neglectaque pascua tauri
calcabant, illis etiam certantibus ausast
daedala nectareos apis intermittere flores.
iamque sub annosa medius consederat umbra
Thyrsis et "o pueri me iudice pignora" dixit
"irrita sint moneo: satis hoc mercedis habeto,
si laudem uictor, si fert opprobria uictus.
et nunc alternos magis ut distinguere cantus
possitis, ter quisque manus iactate micantes."
nec mora: decernunt digitis, prior incipit Idas.

there assembles, in the shade, whoever under the holm‑oak pastures his slow sheep, and Father Faunus and the two‑horned Satyrs;
the Dryads were present with dry foot, the Naiads with wet,
and the hastening rivers held their own courses;
the Euri, the East‑Winds, cease to rush upon the trembling leaves,
and they made stillness throughout the lofty mountains:
all things were at a standstill, and bulls were treading neglected pastures,
while they too contended, even the daedal bee dared
to break off from the nectareous flowers.
and now Thyrsis had sat down in the midst beneath the aged shade
and said, "O boys, with me as judge, I warn the pledges
be void: have this as enough of recompense—
if victor, praise; if vanquished, let him bear opprobrium.
and now, that you may the more distinguish the alternating songs,
let each of you thrice toss your flashing hands."
no delay: they decide by fingers; Idas begins first.

Me Siluanus amat, dociles mihi donat auenas
et mea frondenti circumdat tempora taeda.
ille etiam paruo dixit mihi non leue carmen:
"iam leuis obliqua crescit tibi fistula canna."
At mihi Flora comas pallenti gramine pingit
et matura mihi Pomona sub arbore ludit.
"accipe" dixerunt Nymphae "puer, accipe fontes:
iam potes irriguos nutrire canalibus hortos."
Me docet ipsa Pales cultum gregis, ut niger albae
terga maritus ouis nascenti mutet in agna,
quae neque diuersi speciem seruare parentis
possit et ambiguo testetur utrumque colore.

Silvanus loves me, he gives me docile oaten reeds
and wreathes my temples with a leafy pine-branch.
he even said to me no light song upon a small reed:
"already the slender, slanting reed grows into a pipe for you."
But Flora paints my locks with pallid grass,
and ripe Pomona plays for me beneath the tree.
"receive," said the Nymphs, "boy, receive the springs:
now you can nurture irrigated gardens with channels."
Pales herself teaches me the cultivation of the flock, how the black
husband of the white sheep may change the hides into the newborn lamb,
which can neither keep the appearance of its diverse parents
nor fail to attest both with a twofold, ambiguous color.

Non minus arte mea mutabilis induit arbos
ignotas frondes et non gentilia poma:
ars mea nunc malo pira temperat et modo cogit
insita praecoquibus subrepere persica prunis.
Me teneras salices iuuat aut oleastra putare
et gregibus portare nouis, ut carpere frondes
condiscant primoque recidere gramina morsu,
ne depulsa uagas quaerat fetura parentes.
At mihi cum fuluis radicibus arida tellus
pangitur, irriguo perfunditur area fronte
et satiatur aqua, sucos ne forte priores
languida mutata quaerant plantaria terra.

No less, by my art, does a changeable tree put on
unknown leaves and not-native fruits:
my art now tempers pears to an apple-tree and at times compels
grafted peaches to creep in under early-ripening plums.
It delights me to prune tender willows or oleasters
and to carry them to new flocks, so that they may learn to pluck leaves
and to cut back grasses with the first bite,
lest the offspring, weaned, seek their wandering parents.
But when for me the dry earth is fixed with tawny roots,
the plot is drenched on its irrigated face
and is sated with water, lest the transplanted nursery-stock
perhaps seek their former juices in languid soil.

O si quis Crocalen deus afferat! hunc ego terris,
hunc ego sideribus solum regnare fatebor;
secernamque nemus dicamque: "sub arbore numen
hac erit; ite procul (sacer est locus) ite profani."
Vrimur in Crocalen: si quis mea uota deorum
audiat, huic soli, uirides qua gemmeus undas
fons agit et tremulo percurrit lilia riuo,
inter pampineas ponetur faginus ulmos.
Ne contemne casas et pastoralia tecta:
rusticus est, fateor, sed non et barbarus Idas.

O if some god would bring Crocale! him alone I will confess to reign over the lands,
him alone over the stars; and I will set apart a grove and will say: "under this tree there will be a divinity;
go far off (the place is sacred), go, you profane." We burn for Crocale: if any of the gods
should hear my vows, for her alone, where the gemlike spring drives green waves and runs through lilies
with a trembling rill, a beech-tree will be set among vine-clad elms.
Do not disdain the cottages and shepherdly roofs:
he is rustic, I confess, but Idas is not barbarous as well.

saepe uaporato mihi cespite palpitat agnus,
saepe cadit festis deuota Parilibus agna.
Nos quoque pomiferi laribus consueuimus horti
mittere primitias et fingere liba Priapo,
rorantesque fauos damus et liquentia mella;
nec fore grata minus, quam si caper imbuat aras.
Mille sub uberibus balantes pascimus agnas,
totque Tarentinae praestant mihi uellera matres;
per totum niueus premitur mihi caseus annum:
si uenias, Crocale, totus tibi seruiet hornus.

often on turf made vaporous for me a lamb palpitates,
often on the festive Parilia a devoted she-lamb falls.
We too are accustomed to send first-fruits to the Lares of the fruit-bearing garden
and to fashion liba-cakes for Priapus,
and we give dripping honeycombs and liquid honeys;
nor will they be less pleasing than if a he-goat should imbue the altars.
A thousand bleating ewe-lambs under the udders we pasture,
and just so many Tarentine mothers provide fleeces for me;
through the whole year snow-white cheese is pressed for me:
if you should come, Crocale, the whole year’s yield will serve you.

Qui numerare uelit quam multa sub arbore nostra
poma legam, tenues citius numerabit harenas.
semper holus metimus, nec bruma nec impedit aestas:
si uenias, Crocale, totus tibi seruiet hortus.
Quamuis siccus ager languentes excoquat herbas,
sume tamen calathos nutanti lacte coactos:
uellera tunc dabimus, cum primum tempus apricum
surget et a tepidis fiet tonsura Kalendis.

Whoever should wish to enumerate how many fruits beneath our tree
I gather, will more quickly number the fine sands.
we always harvest greens, neither brumal nor summer season hinders:
if you should come, Crocale, the whole garden will serve you.
Although the dry field parches the languishing herbs,
yet take the baskets, coagulated by nodding milk:
the fleeces then we shall give, when first the sunny season
rises and the shearing will be done at the tepid Kalends.

At nos, quos etiam praetorrida munerat aestas,
mille renidenti dabimus tibi cortice Chias,
castaneasque nuces totidem, cum sole Decembri
maturis nucibus uirides rumpentur echini.
Num precor, informis uideor tibi? num grauis annis?

But as for us, whom even the scorching summer endows,
we will give you a thousand Chian [figs] with a smiling rind,
and just as many chestnuts, when with the December sun
the green burrs will be burst for the mature nuts.
Pray, do I seem misshapen to you? am I burdensome with years?

decipiorque miser, quotiens mollissima tango
ora manu primique sequor uestigia floris
nescius et gracili digitos lanugine fallo?
Fontibus in liquidis quotiens me conspicor, ipse
admiror totiens. etenim sic flore iuuentae
induimur uultus, ut in arbore saepe notaui
cerea sub tenui lucere cydonia lana.

and I, wretched, am deceived, as often as I touch with my hand the very soft face
and, unknowing, follow the first vestiges of the flower
and I trick my fingers with the slender down?
In liquid fountains, as often as I behold myself,
so often I myself marvel. For indeed thus with the blossom of youth
our faces are invested, as on a tree I have often noted
the waxen Cydonian quinces to shine beneath a thin wool.

carmina poscit amor, nec fistula cedit amori.
sed fugit ecce dies reuocatque crepuscula uesper.
hinc tu, Daphni, greges, illinc agat Alphesiboeus.

Love demands songs, nor does the pipe cede to love.
But lo, the day flees, and Vesper recalls the twilights.
On this side, you, Daphnis, drive the flocks; on that side let Alphesiboeus drive.

Iam resonant frondes, iam cantibus obstrepit arbos:
i procul, o Doryla, plenumque reclude canalem,
et sine iam dudum sitientes irriget hortos."
uix ea finierant, senior cum talia Thyrsis:
"este pares et ob hoc concordes uiuite; nam uos
et decor et cantus et amor sociauit et aetas."

Now the leaves resound, now the tree resounds in answer to the songs:
go off a way, O Doryla, and unclose the full canal,
and let it at last irrigate the thirsty gardens."
Hardly had they finished these things, when the elder Thyrsis [said] such words:
"be equals, and on this account live in concord; for both you
beauty and song and love and age have allied together."

BVCOLICA - III

BUCOLICS - 3

Numquid in hac Lycida, uidisti forte iuuencam
ualle meam? solet ista tuis occurrere tauris,
et iam paene duas, dum quaeritur, eximit horas;
nec tamen apparet. duris ego perdita ruscis
iam dudum nullus dubitaui crura rubetis
scindere, nec quicquam post tantum sanguinis egi.

Have you by chance, Lycidas, seen a heifer of mine in this valley?
That one is wont to meet your bulls, and now, while she is being sought, she takes away almost two hours;
and yet she does not appear. I, desperate, with hard butcher’s-brooms,
long since did not hesitate to tear my legs with brambles,
and I have achieved nothing after so much blood.

Non satis attendi: nec enim uacat. uror, Iolla,
uror, et immodice: Lycidan ingrata reliquit
Phyllis amatque nouum post tot mea munera Mopsum.
Mobilior uentis o femina!

I have not paid attention enough; for indeed there is no leisure. I burn, Iolla, I burn, and immoderately:
Phyllis, ungrateful, has left Lycidas and loves a new Mopsus after so many of my gifts.
More mobile than the winds, O woman!

sic tua Phyllis:
quae sibi, nam memini, si quando solus abesses,
mella etiam sine te iurabat amara uideri.
Altius ista querar, si forte uacabis, Iolla.
has pete nunc salices et laeuas flecte sub ulmos.

thus your Phyllis:
who, for I remember, whenever you were absent by yourself,
swore that even honey, without you, seemed bitter.
I shall complain of these things more deeply, if perchance you are at leisure, Iolla.
seek now these willows and turn left beneath the elms.

nam cum prata calent, illic requiescere noster
taurus amat gelidaque iacet spatiosus in umbra
et matutinas reuocat palearibus herbas.
Non equidem, Lycida, quamuis contemptus, abibo.
Tityre, quas dixit, salices pete solus et illinc,
si tamen inuenies, deprensam uerbere multo
huc age; sed fractum referas hastile memento.

for when the meadows are warm, there our bull loves to rest
and he lies spacious in the gelid shade
and with his dewlaps he recalls the morning grasses.
Not indeed, Lycidas, although contemned, will I depart.
Tityrus, seek the willows which she mentioned, alone, and from there,
if, however, you find her, drive her hither, caught, with many a lash;
but remember to bring back the spear-shaft broken.

nunc age dic, Lycida: quae noxam magna tulere
iurgia? quis uestro deus interuenit amori?
Phyllide contentus sola (tu testis, Iolla)
Callirhoen spreui, quamuis cum dote rogaret:
en, sibi cum Mopso calamos intexere cera
incipit et puero comitata sub ilice cantat.

now come, say, Lycidas: what great wrong have the quarrels brought?
what god has intervened in your love?
content with Phyllis alone (you are witness, Iolla)
I spurned Callirhoe, although she wooed with a dowry:
lo, with Mopsus she begins to interweave reeds with wax
for herself, and accompanied by the boy she sings beneath the ilex.

haec ego cum uidi, fateor, sic intimus arsi,
ut nihil ulterius tulerim. nam protinus ambas
diduxi tunicas et pectora nuda cecidi.
Alcippen irata petit dixitque: "relicto,
improbe, te, Lycida, Mopsum tua Phyllis amabit."
nunc penes Alcippen manet; ac ne forte negetur,
a! uereor; nec tam nobis ego Phyllida reddi
exopto quam cum Mopso iurgetur anhelo.

when I saw these things, I confess, I burned so inwardly,
that I could bear nothing further. for straightway I parted both
my tunics and smote my bare breast. Alcippe, enraged, made for me and said: “with you
left behind, shameless one, your Phyllis will love Mopsus, Lycidas.”
now she remains in Alcippe’s power; and lest perhaps it be denied,
ah! I fear; nor do I so much desire that Phyllis be returned
to me as that she may quarrel with panting Mopsus.

A te coeperunt tua iurgia; tu prior illi
uictas tende manus; decet indulgere puellae,
uel cum prima nocet. si quid mandare iuuabit,
sedulus iratae contingam nuntius aures.
Iam dudum meditor, quo Phyllida carmine placem.

Your quarrels began from you; you be first to her
to stretch out conquered hands; it befits to indulge a girl,
even when she is the first to offend. If it will please you to send any charge,
as a zealous messenger I will touch the ears of the angry one.
For a long time now I have been musing with what song I may appease Phyllis.

forsitan audito poterit mitescere cantu;
et solet illa meas ad sidera ferre Camenas.
Dic age; nam cerasi tua cortice uerba notabo
et decisa feram rutilanti carmina libro.
"Has tibi, Phylli, preces iam pallidus, hos tibi cantus
dat Lycidas, quos nocte miser modulatur acerba,
dum flet et excluso disperdit lumina somno.

perhaps she may be able to grow mild, the song once heard;
and she is wont to bear my Camenae to the stars.
Say on, come; for on the cherry-tree’s bark I shall mark your words,
and I shall carry the songs cut on a rutilant bark-book.
“These prayers to you, Phyllis, now pallid—these songs to you
Lycidas gives, which the wretch modulates in the bitter night,
while he weeps and, with sleep shut out, ruins his eyes.

non sic destricta marcescit turdus oliua,
non lepus, extremas legulus cum sustulit uuas,
ut Lycidas domina sine Phyllide tabidus erro.
te sine, uae misero, mihi lilia nigra uidentur
nec sapiunt fontes et acescunt uina bibenti.
at si tu uenias, et candida lilia fient
et sapient fontes et dulcia uina bibentur.

not thus, with the olive stripped, does the thrush wither,
nor the hare, when the grape-gatherer has carried off the farthest grapes,
as I, Lycidas, tabid, wander without my mistress Phyllis.
without you—alas, for wretched me—lilies seem black to me,
the springs have no savor, and the wines turn sour to the drinker.
but if you should come, even the lilies will become candid-white,
and the springs will be sapid, and sweet wines will be drunk.

ille ego sum Lycidas, quo te cantante solebas
dicere felicem, cui dulcia saepe dedisti
oscula nec medios dubitasti rumpere cantus
atque inter calamos errantia labra petisti.
a dolor! et post haec placuit tibi torrida Mopsi
uox et carmen iners et acerbae stridor auenae?

i am that Lycidas, at whose singing you used to call yourself happy,
to whom you often gave sweet kisses, nor did you hesitate to break the song in the middle
and you sought wandering lips among the reeds. ah, grief! and after these things did the parched voice of Mopsus
please you, and an inert song and the bitter screech of the oat-reed?

quem sequeris? quem, Phylli, fugis? formosior illo
dicor, et hoc ipsum mihi tu iurare solebas.

whom do you follow? whom, Phyllis, do you flee? I am said to be more beautiful than that man
and this very thing you used to swear to me.

sum quoque diuitior: certauerit ille tot haedos
pascere quot nostri numerantur uespere tauri.
quid tibi quae nosti referam? scis, optima Phylli,
quam numerosa meis siccetur bucula mulctris
et quam multa suos suspendat ad ubera natos.

i too am wealthier: let him vie to pasture as many kids
as our bulls are counted at evening.
why should i recount to you what you know? you know, best Phyllis,
how numerous the milk-pails by which my little cow is drained dry,
and how many of her young she hangs at her udders.

sed mihi nec gracilis sine te fiscella salicto
texitur et nullo tremuere coagula lacte.
quod si dura times etiam nunc uerbera, Phylli,
tradimus ecce manus: licet illae uimine torto,
si libet, et lenta post tergum uite domentur,
ut mala nocturni religauit bracchia Mopsi
Tityrus et furem medio suspendit ouili.
accipe, ne dubites, meruit manus utraque poenas.

but for me, without you, not even a slender little basket is woven from osier,
and no curds have trembled, there being no milk.
but if you even now fear harsh lashes, Phyllis,
look, we surrender our hands: it is permitted that they,
if it pleases, be tamed with twisted withy, and with a pliant vine be tied behind the back,
as Tityrus bound fast the wicked arms of nocturnal Mopsus
and hung the thief in the middle of the sheepfold.
receive it—do not hesitate—each hand has deserved its penalties.

his tamen, hic isdem manibus tibi saepe palumbes,
saepe etiam leporem decepta matre pauentem
misimus in gremium; per me tibi lilia prima
contigerunt primaeque rosae: uixdum bene florem
degustarat apis, tu cingebare coronis.
aurea sed forsan mendax tibi munera iactat,
qui metere occidua ferales nocte lupinos
dicitur et cocto pensare legumine panem:
qui sibi tunc felix, tunc fortunatus habetur,
uilia cum subigit manualibus hordea saxis.
quod si turpis amor precibus, quod abominor, istis
obstiterit, laqueum miseri nectemus ab illa
ilice, quae nostros primum uiolauit amores.

Yet with these, here with these same hands, to you often wood-pigeons,
often also a hare, trembling with its mother deceived,
we have sent into your lap; through me the first lilies
fell to you and the first roses: scarcely had the bee well
tasted the flower, you were being encircled with coronals.
But perhaps he vaunts to you mendacious golden gifts,
who is said to reap funereal lupins by the occidental night
and to weigh out bread with cooked legume:
who then is held happy for himself, then fortunate,
when he subdues paltry barley with manual mill-stones.
But if foul love, which I abominate, shall have withstood these prayers,
we wretches will tie a noose from that
holm-oak, which first violated our loves.

hi tamen ante mala figentur in arbore uersus:
"credere, pastores, leuibus nolite puellis;
Phyllida Mopsus habet, Lycidan habet ultima rerum."
nunc age, si quicquam miseris succurris, Iolla,
perfer et exora modulato Phyllida cantu.
ipse procul stabo uel acuta carice tectus
uel propius latitans uicina sepe sub horti.
Ibimus: et ueniet, nisi me praesagia fallunt.

yet these verses, however, shall be fixed on the tree before the apples:
"believe not, shepherds, in fickle girls;
Mopsus has Phyllis, the last extremity has Lycidas."
come now, Iolla, if in any way you bring succor to the wretched,
carry it through and win over Phyllis with a modulated song.
I myself will stand afar, either covered with sharp sedge,
or nearer, hiding beneath the neighboring hedge of the garden.
we shall go; and she will come, unless my presages deceive me.

nam bonus a! dextrum fecit mihi Tityrus omen,
qui redit inuenta non irritus ecce iuuenca.

for good—ah!—Tityrus made for me a right-hand omen,
who returns, lo, not ineffectual, with the heifer found.

BVCOLICA - IV

BUCOLICS - 4

Quid tacitus, Corydon, uultuque subinde minaci
quidue sub hac platano, quam garrulus adstrepit umor,
insueta statione sedes? iuuat algida forsan
ripa leuatque diem uicini spiritus amnis?
Carmina iam dudum, non quae nemorale resultent,
uoluimus, o Meliboee; sed haec, quibus aurea possint
saecula cantari, quibus et deus ipse canatur,
qui populos urbesque regit pacemque togatam.

Why silent, Corydon, and with a visage again and again menacing,
and why beneath this plane-tree, which the garrulous water makes to resound beside,
do you sit at an unaccustomed station? perhaps the chilly
bank pleases and the breath of the neighboring stream lightens the day?
Songs now long have we been turning over, not such as would resound through the nemoral grove,
O Meliboeus, but those by which the Golden Ages may be sung, and by which the god himself may be sung,
who rules peoples and cities and the peace of the toga.

Dulce quidem resonas, nec te diuersus Apollo
despicit, o iuuenis, sed magnae numina Romae
non ita cantari debent, ut ouile Menalcae.
Quicquid id est, siluestre licet uideatur acutis
auribus et nostro tantum memorabile pago;
nunc mea rusticitas, si non ualet arte polita
carminis, at certe ualeat pietate probari.
rupe sub hac eadem, quam proxima pinus obumbrat,
haec eadem nobis frater meditatur Amyntas,
quem uicina meis natalibus admouet aetas.

Sweetly indeed you resound, nor does adverse Apollo
despise you, O youth; but the numina of great Rome
ought not to be sung as the sheepfold of Menalcas.
Whatever it is, though it may seem woodland to acute
ears and memorable only to our pagus;
now let my rusticity, if it does not prevail by the polished art
of song, at least surely prevail to be approved by piety.
beneath this same crag, which the nearest pine overshadows,
this same thing for us our brother Amyntas rehearses,
whom an age neighboring my own birth brings close.

Iam puerum calamos et odorae uincula cerae
iungere non cohibes, leuibus quem saepe cicutis
ludere conantem uetuisti fronte paterna?
dicentem, Corydon, te non semel ista notaui:
"frange, puer, calamos et inanes desere Musas;
i, potius glandes rubicundaque collige corna,
duc ad mulctra greges et lac uenale per urbem
non tacitus porta. quid enim tibi fistula reddet,
quo tutere famem?

Now you do not restrain the boy from fitting reeds with the fragrant bands of wax,
whom, when he often tried to play on slender hemlock-stalks,
you forbade with a paternal brow?
I have noted you, Corydon, more than once saying these things:
"break, boy, the reeds and desert the empty Muses;
go, rather gather acorns and ruddy cornels,
lead the flocks to the milk-pails and carry milk for sale through the city
carry it, not silent. For what will the pipe render you,
by what will you keep hunger off?

certe mea carmina nemo
praeter ab his scopulis uentosa remurmurat echo."
Haec ego, confiteor, dixi, Meliboee, sed olim:
non eadem nobis sunt tempora, non deus idem.
spes magis arridet: certe ne fraga rubosque
colligerem uiridique famem solarer hibisco,
tu facis et tua nos alit indulgentia farre;
tu nostras miseratus opes docilemque iuuentam
hiberna prohibes ieiunia soluere fago.
ecce nihil querulum per te, Meliboee, sonamus;
per te secura saturi recubamus in umbra
et fruimur siluis Amaryllidos, ultima nuper
litora terrarum, nisi tu, Meliboee, fuisses,
ultima uisuri trucibusque obnoxia Mauris
pascua Geryonis, liquidis ubi cursibus ingens
dicitur occiduas impellere Baetis harenas.

Certainly my songs no one
except, from these crags, the windy Echo re-murmurs back."
These things I, I confess, said, Meliboeus, but once:
the times are not the same for us, nor the god the same.
Hope smiles more: at least, lest strawberries and brambles
I should gather and with green mallow solace hunger,
you make it so, and your indulgence nourishes us with spelt;
you, pitying our means and our docile youth,
keep us from breaking our winter fast on beech-mast.
See, nothing querulous, through you, Meliboeus, do we sound;
through you, secure and sated, we recline in the shade
and we enjoy the woods of Amaryllis, the farthest
shores of the earth we should lately have been going to see, unless you, Meliboeus, had been,
the farthest pastures, exposed to the savage Moors,
the pastures of Geryon, where with limpid courses the mighty
Baetis is said to drive the occidental sands.

scilicet extremo nunc uilis in orbe iacerem,
a dolor! et pecudes inter conductus Iberas
irrita septena modularer sibila canna;
nec quisquam nostras inter dumeta Camenas
respiceret; non ipse daret mihi forsitan aurem,
ipse deus uacuam, longeque sonantia uota
scilicet extremo non exaudiret in orbe.
sed nisi forte tuas melior sonus aduocat aures
et nostris aliena magis tibi carmina rident,
uis, hodierna tua subigatur pagina lima?

surely now I would lie of little worth at the farthest end of the world,
ah, grief! and, hired among Iberian flocks,
I would modulate fruitless hissings on a seven-reeded pipe;
nor would anyone regard our Camenae amid the thickets;
not even he himself, the god himself, would perhaps lend me an unoccupied ear,
nor would he hear, far-sounding, my vows at the farthest end of the world.
but unless perchance a better sound summons your ears
and songs alien to ours smile more upon you,
do you wish that today’s page be subjected to your file?

nam tibi non tantum uenturos dicere nimbos
agricolis qualemque ferat sol aureus ortum
attribuere dei, sed dulcia carmina saepe
concinis, et modo te Baccheis Musa corymbis
munerat et lauro modo pulcher obumbrat Apollo.
quod si tu faueas trepido mihi, forsitan illos
experiar calamos, here quos mihi doctus Iollas
donauit dixitque: "truces haec fistula tauros
conciliat: nostroque sonat dulcissima Fauno.
Tityrus hanc habuit, cecinit qui primus in istis
montibus Hyblaea modulabile carmen auena."
Magna petis, Corydon, si Tityrus esse laboras.

for to you not only to tell the coming rain-clouds
to farmers and what sort of rising the golden sun brings
have the gods attributed, but you often sing in concert
sweet songs, and now the Muse endows you with Bacchic corymbs,
and now fair Apollo overshadows you with laurel.
but if you should favor me, trepid as I am, perhaps I shall try
those reeds which yesterday learned Iollas
gave me and said: “this pipe conciliates fierce bulls,
and to our Faunus it sounds most sweet.”
Tityrus had this, who first on these
mountains sang a Hyblaean modulable song on the reed.
You ask great things, Corydon, if you toil to be Tityrus.

ille fuit uates sacer et qui posset auena
praesonuisse chelyn, blandae cui saepe canenti
allusere ferae, cui substitit aduena quercus.
quem modo cantantem rutilo spargebat acantho
Nais et implicitos comebat pectine crines.
Est (fateor, Meliboee,) deus: sed nec mihi Phoebus
forsitan abnuerit; tu tantum commodus audi:
scimus enim, quam te non aspernetur Apollo.

he was a sacred vates, and one who could with the oaten reed
prelude the lyre; at whose often charming singing
wild beasts played alongside, at whom a stranger oak stood still.
whom, just now singing, a Naiad was sprinkling with ruddy acanthus
and was combing his intertwined hair with her comb.
There is (I confess, Meliboeus,) a god: but neither perhaps will Phoebus
refuse me; do you only kindly listen:
for we know how Apollo does not spurn you.

Incipe, nam faueo; sed prospice, ne tibi forte
tinnula tam fragili respiret fistula buxo,
quam resonare solet, si quando laudat Alexin.
hos potius, magis hos calamos sectare: canales
exprime qui dignas cecinerunt consule siluas.
incipe, ne dubita.

Begin, for I favor you; but look ahead, lest perchance for you
a tinkling pipe breathe from so fragile boxwood,
which is accustomed to resonate whenever he praises Alexis.
choose rather these—these reeds pursue the more: press the channels
which have sung woods worthy of a consul.
begin; do not hesitate.

uenit en et frater Amyntas:
cantibus iste tuis alterno succinet ore.
ducite, nec mora sit, uicibusque reducite carmen;
tuque prior, Corydon, tu proximus ibis, Amynta.
ab Ioue principium, si quis canit aethera, sumat,
si quis Atlantiaci pondus molitur Olympi:
at mihi, qui nostras praesenti numine terras
perpetuamque regit iuuenili robore pacem,
laetus et augusto felix arrideat ore.

Lo, even brother Amyntas comes:
he shall accompany your songs with an alternating voice.
Lead on, and let there be no delay, and by turns bring back the song;
and you first, Corydon; you next will go, Amyntas.
From Jove let one take the beginning, if anyone sings the aether,
if anyone undertakes the burden of Atlantean Olympus:
but for me, may he—who with present numen our lands
and with youthful strength governs perpetual peace—
cheerful and fortunate, smile upon me with an august countenance.

me quoque facundo comitatus Apolline Caesar
respiciat, montes neu dedignetur adire,
quos et Phoebus amat, quos Iuppiter ipse tuetur:
in quibus Augustos uisuraque saepe triumphos
laurus fructificat uicinaque nascitur arbos.
ipse polos etiam qui temperat igne geluque,
Iuppiter ipse parens, cui tu iam proximus ipse,
Caesar, abes, posito paulisper fulmine saepe
Cresia rura petit uiridique reclinis in antro
carmina Dictaeis audit Curetica siluis.
adspicis, ut uirides audito Caesare siluae
conticeant?

may Caesar too, accompanied by eloquent Apollo,
look back upon me, nor disdain to come to the mountains,
which both Phoebus loves, which Jupiter himself protects:
in which the laurel bears fruit, destined to behold Augustan triumphs often,
and a neighboring tree is born.
the very one who also tempers the poles with fire and with frost,
Jupiter himself, the sire, to whom you now yourself, Caesar, are closest—though away—,
often, his thunderbolt set aside for a little while,
seeks the Cretan fields, and reclining in a green cave
listens to Curetan songs in the Dictean woods.
do you see how the green woods, at the name of Caesar heard,
fall silent?

memini, quamuis urgente procella
sic nemus immotis subito requiescere ramis,
et dixi: "deus hinc, certe deus expulit euros."
nec mora; Parrhasiae sonuerunt sibila cannae.
adspicis, ut teneros subitus uigor excitet agnos?
utque superfuso magis ubera lacte grauentur
et nuper tonsis exundent uellera fetis?

I remember, although with a storm pressing,
thus the grove to rest suddenly with unmoving branches,
and I said: "a god from here, surely a god has driven out the Eurus-winds."
No delay; the sibilations of the Parrhasian reeds resounded.
Do you behold how a sudden vigor arouses the tender lambs?
And how the udders are weighed down the more with milk poured over,
and the fleeces overflow even for the ewes recently shorn?

hoc ego iam, memini, semel hac in ualle notaui
et uenisse Palen pecoris dixisse magistros.
scilicet omnis eum tellus, gens omnis adorat,
diligiturque deis, quem sic taciturna uerentur
arbuta, cuius iners audito nomine tellus
incaluit floremque dedit; cui silua uocato;
densat odore comas, stupefacta regerminat albos.
illius ut primum senserunt numina terrae,
coepit et uberior sulcis fallentibus olim
luxuriare seges tandemque legumina plenis
uix resonant siliquis; nec praefocata malignum
messis habet lolium nec inertibus albet auenis.

this I already, I remember, once noted in this valley,
and said that Pales had come, the masters of the herd reporting it.
doubtless every land, every people adores him,
and he is loved by the gods, whom thus the silent arbutus-trees revere;
at the hearing of whose name the inert earth grew warm and gave a flower; at whose calling the forest
thickens its locks with fragrance, amazed, it re-germinates white blossoms.
as soon as the lands sensed that one’s numina,
the crop began to luxuriate more richly in furrows that once deceived,
and at last the legumes in their full pods scarcely resound;
nor, choked, does the harvest have malignant darnel, nor does it whiten with inert oats.

iam neque damnatos metuit iactare ligones
fossor et inuento, si fors dedit, utitur auro;
nec timet, ut nuper, dum iugera uersat arator,
ne sonet offenso contraria uomere massa,
iamque palam presso magis et magis instat aratro.
ille dat, ut primas Cereri dare cultor aristas
possit et intacto Bromium perfundere uino,
ut nudus ruptas saliat calcator in uuas
utque bono plaudat paganica turba magistro,
qui facit egregios ad peruia compita ludos.
ille meis pacem dat montibus: ecce per illum,
seu cantare iuuat seu ter pede lenta ferire
gramina, nullus obest: licet et cantare choreis
et cantus uiridante licet mihi condere libro,
turbida nec calamos iam surdant classica nostros.

now the digger no longer fears to hurl the damned mattocks,
and, when gold has been found, if fortune has given it, he uses it;
nor does he fear, as lately, while the ploughman turns the acres,
lest an opposing mass ring when the ploughshare strikes it,
and now openly he presses more and more upon the weighted plough.
he grants that the cultivator may give the first ears to Ceres
and drench Bromius with untouched wine,
that the naked treader may leap into the burst grapes,
and that the village crowd may applaud the good master,
who makes excellent games at the passable crossroads.
he gives peace to my mountains: behold, through him,
whether it delights to sing or to smite the pliant grasses thrice with the foot,
no one hinders: it is permitted both to sing for choruses,
and it is permitted for me to lay up songs in a greening book,
nor do the turbulent war-trumpets now deafen our reeds.

numine Caesareo securior ipse Lycaeus
Pan recolit siluas et amoena Faunus in umbra
securus recubat placidoque in fonte lauatur
Nais et humanum non calcatura cruorem
per iuga siccato uelox pede currit Oreas.
di, precor, hunc iuuenem quem uos (neque fallor) ab ipso
aethere misistis, post longa reducite uitae
tempora uel potius mortale resoluite pensum
et date perpetuo caelestia fila metallo:
sit deus et nolit pensare palatia caelo!
tu quoque mutata seu Iuppiter ipse figura,
Caesar, ades seu quis superum sub imagine falsa
mortalique lates (es enim deus): hunc, precor, orbem,
hos, precor, aeternus populos rege!

by the Caesarean numen Lycaean Pan himself, more secure, revisits the woods,
and Faunus reclines secure in the pleasant shade, and in a placid spring
the Naiad is bathed, and the Oread, not about to tread human gore,
runs swift over the ridges with dry foot.
gods, I pray, this youth whom you (nor am I mistaken) sent from the very aether,
after long spans of life lead back, or rather loosen the mortal task
and give heavenly threads to everlasting metal:
let him be a god and not weigh palaces against heaven!
you also, Caesar, whether Jupiter himself with a changed figure,
be present, or whoever of the gods, under a false image
and as mortal, hides (for you are a god): this orb, I pray, rule,
these peoples, I pray, forever!

sit tibi caeli
uilis amor coeptamque, pater, ne desere pacem!
rustica credebam nemorales carmina uobis
concessisse deos et obesis auribus apta;
uerum, quae paribus modo concinuistis auenis,
tam liquidum, tam dulce cadunt, ut non ego malim,
quod Paeligna solent examina lambere nectar.
o mihi quae tereti decurrunt carmina uersu
tunc, Meliboee, sonent si quando montibus istis
dicar habere Larem, si quando nostra uidere
pascua contingat!

may the love of heaven be cheap to you,
and, father, do not desert the peace that has been begun!
I believed that the gods had granted to you rustic, nemoral songs
and ones fitting for obese ears;
but what you have just harmonized on equal reeds
falls so limpid, so sweet, that I would not prefer
what Pelignian swarms are wont to lick—nectar.
O may the songs that run down for me in a terete verse
then, Meliboeus, resound, if ever in these mountains
I may be said to have a Lar, if ever it should be my lot
to behold our pastures!

uellit nam saepius aurem
inuida paupertas et dicit: "ouilia cura!"
at tu, si qua tamen non aspernanda putabis,
fer, Meliboee, deo mea carmina: nam tibi fas est
sacra Palatini penetralia uisere Phoebi.
tum mihi talis eris, qualis qui dulce sonantem
Tityron e siluis dominam deduxit in urbem
ostenditque deos et "spreto" dixit "ouili,
Tityre, rura prius, sed post cantabimus arma."
respiciat nostros utinam fortuna labores
pulchrior et meritae faueat deus ipse iuuentae!
nos tamen interea tenerum mactabimus haedum
et pariter subitae peragemus fercula cenae.

for envious poverty more often tugs at the ear
and says: "mind the sheepfolds!"
but you, if you will think anything not to be spurned,
carry, Meliboeus, my songs to the god: for to you it is lawful
to visit the sacred penetralia of Palatine Phoebus.
then you will be to me such as he who, Tityrus sweet-sounding,
led his lady from the woods into the city
and showed him the gods and said: "with the sheepfold spurned,
Tityrus, the fields first, but after we shall sing of arms."
would that fairer Fortune might regard our labors
and may the god himself favor a youth deserving it!
we, however, meanwhile will sacrifice a tender kid
and alike will accomplish the dishes of a sudden supper.

nunc ad flumen oues deducite: iam fremit aestas,
iam sol contractas pedibus magis admouet umbras.

now lead the sheep down to the river: already summer roars,
already the sun moves the contracted shadows closer to the feet.

BVCOLICA - V

BUCOLICS - 5

Forte Micon senior Canthusque, Miconis alumnus,
torrentem patula uitabant ilice solem,
cum iuueni senior praecepta daturus alumno
talia uerba refert tremulis titubantia labris:
"quas errare uides inter dumeta capellas
canaque lasciuo concidere gramina morsu,
Canthe puer, quos ecce greges a monte remotos
cernis in aprico decerpere gramina campo,
hos tibi do senior iuueni pater: ipse tuendos
accipe. iam certe potes insudare labori,
iam pro me gnauam potes exercere iuuentam.
Adspicis ut nobis aetas iam mille querelas
afferat et baculum premat inclinata senectus?

By chance Micon the elder and Canthus, Micon’s alumnus,
were avoiding the torrid sun beneath a spreading ilex,
when the elder, about to give precepts to the youthful pupil,
utters such words, faltering with trembling lips:
“the she-goats which you see wandering among the thickets
and felling the hoary grasses with a lascivious bite,
O Canthus, boy, the flocks which, look, withdrawn from the mountain,
you behold plucking the grasses in the sunny field—
these I, the elder, as a father, give to you, a young man: take them yourself
to be guarded. Now surely you can sweat at the labor,
now on my behalf you can exercise your diligent youth.
Adspicis ut do you see how for us age already brings a thousand complaints,
and how bowed senescence presses hard upon the staff?”

sed qua lege regas et amantes lustra capellas
et melius pratis errantes mollibus agnas,
percipe. uere nouo, cum iam tinnire uolucres
incipient nidosque reuersa lutabit hirundo,
protinus hiberno pecus omne mouebis ouili.
tunc etenim melior uernanti germine silua
pullat et aestiuas reparabilis incohat umbras,
tunc florent saltus uiridisque renascitur annus,
tunc Venus et calidi scintillat feruor amoris
lasciuumque pecus salientes accipit hircos.

but by what rule you should govern the lair-loving she-goats
and better the lambs wandering through the soft meadows,
perceive. In the new spring, when already the birds will begin to tinkle
and the swallow, returned, will daub the nests with mud,
straightway you will move all the herd from the winter sheepfold.
then indeed the forest, better with vernal germ, pullulates
and, reparative, inchoates the estival shades,
then the glades flower and the green year is reborn,
then Venus and the fervor of hot love scintillates
and the wanton herd receives the leaping he-goats.

sed non ante greges in pascua mitte reclusos,
quam fuerit placata Pales. tum cespite uiuo
pone focum geniumque loci Faunumque Laresque
salso farre uoca; tepidos tunc hostia cultros
imbuat: hac etiam, dum uiuit, ouilia lustra.
nec mora, tunc campos ouibus, dumeta capellis
orto sole dabis, simul hunc transcendere montem
coeperit ac primae spatium tepefecerit horae.

but do not send the flocks, once unbarred, into pasture,
before Pales has been appeased. Then upon living sod
set the hearth, and call the Genius of the place and Faunus and the Lares
with salted spelt; then let the sacrificial victim imbue the warm knives:
with this too, while it lives, lustrate the sheepfolds.
no delay, then give the fields to the sheep, the thickets to the she-goats,
when the sun has risen, as soon as it begins to cross this mountain
and the span of the first hour has warmed.

at si forte uaces, dum matutina relaxat
frigora sol, tumidis spumantia mulctra papillis
implebit quod mane fluet; rursusque premetur
mane quod occiduae mulsura redegerit horae.
parce tamen fetis: ne sint compendia tanti,
destruat ut niueos uenalis cascus agnos;
nam tibi praecipuo fetura coletur amore.
te quoque non pudeat, cum serus ouilia uises,
si qua iacebit ouis partu resoluta recenti,
hanc umeris portare tuis natosque tepenti
ferre sinu tremulos et nondum stare paratos.

but if by chance you have leisure, while the sun relaxes the matutinal chills,
she will fill the foaming milking-pails from swollen teats
with what will flow in the morning; and again will be pressed
in the morning that which the milking of the westering hour has brought together.
spare, however, the breeding dams: lest the profits be so great
that saleable aged cheese destroy the snow-white lambs;
for the breeding-stock will be tended for you with especial love.
nor let it shame you, too, when late you visit the sheepfolds,
if any ewe shall lie loosened by a recent birth,
to carry her on your shoulders, and to bear the newborns, trembling
and not yet prepared to stand, in your tepid bosom.

nec tu longinquas procul a praesepibus herbas
nec nimis amotae sectabere pabula siluae,
dum peragit uernum Iouis inconstantia tempus.
ueris enim dubitanda fides: modo fronte serena
blandius arrisit, modo cum caligine nimbos
intulit et miseras torrentibus abstulit agnas.
At cum longa dies sitientes afferet aestus
nec fuerit uariante deo mutabile caelum,
iam siluis committe greges, iam longius herbas
quaere; sed ante diem pecus exeat: umida dulces
efficit aura cibos, quotiens fugientibus euris
frigida nocturno tanguntur pascua rore
et matutinae lucent in gramine guttae.

nor will you pursue herbs far from the stalls,
nor the fodder of a forest too far removed,
while Jove’s inconstancy carries through the springtime.
for in spring trust is to be doubted: now with a serene brow
it has smiled more coaxingly, now with gloom it has brought in clouds
and has swept away wretched lambs with torrents.
But when the long day will bring thirsting heats
and the sky will not be changeable with the god varying it,
now entrust the flocks to the woods, now seek herbage farther afield;
but let the flock go out before the day: the moist breeze
makes the foods sweet, whenever with the East-winds in flight
the pastures are touched by nocturnal dew
and the drops of morning shine upon the grass.

at simul argutae nemus increpuere cicadae,
ad fontem compelle greges; nec protinus herbas
et campos permitte sequi, sed protegat illos
interea ueteres quae porrigit aesculus umbras.
uerum ubi declini iam nona tepescere sole
incipiet seraeque uidebitur hora merendae,
rursus pasce greges et opacos desere lucos.
nec prius aestiuo pecus includatur ouili,
quam leuibus nidis somnos captare uolucris
cogitet et tremulo queribunda fritinniat ore.

but as soon as the shrill cicadas have made the grove rattle,
drive the flocks to the spring; and do not straightway allow them
to follow the grasses and the fields, but let the ancient
shades which the aesculus stretches forth protect them meanwhile.
but when already the ninth hour, with the sun declining,
shall begin to grow tepid and the time for a late snack will seem at hand,
again pasture the flocks and leave the shaded groves.
nor should the flock be enclosed in the summer sheepfold
before the bird begins to think to seize sleep in its light nests
and, complaining, trills with a trembling beak.

Cum iam tempus erit maturas demere lanas,
sucida iam tereti constringere uellera iunco,
hircorumque iubas et olentes caedere barbas,
ante tamen secerne pecus gregibusque notatis
consimiles include comis, ne longa minutis,
mollia ne duris coeant, ne candida fuscis.
sed tibi cum uacuas posito uelamine costas
denudauit ouis, circumspice, ne sit acuta
forpice laesa cutis, tacitum ne pustula uirus
texerit occulto sub uulnere: quae nisi ferro
rumpitur, a! miserum fragili rubigine corpus
arrodet sanies et putria contrahet ossa.
prouidus (hoc moneo) uiuentia sulphura tecum
et scillae caput et uirosa bitumina portes,
uulneribus laturus opem; nec Bruttia desit
pix tibi: tu liquido picis unguine terga memento,
si sint rasa, linas.

When now it will be time to take off the mature fleeces,
now to bind the greasy fleeces with a smooth (terete) rush,
and to cut the manes of the he-goats and their reeking beards,
yet first separate the flock, and with the herds marked
pen consimilar ones by their locks, lest the long with the minute,
lest the soft with the hard coalesce, lest the bright-white with the dusky.
But when for you, the sheep, with its covering set aside,
has laid bare its ribs void of wool, look around, lest the skin be hurt
by the sharp shear, lest a silent pustule veil a poison
under a hidden wound: which, unless it is burst by iron,
ah! the ichor will gnaw the wretched body with brittle “rust,”
and will draw together rottenness in the bones.
Forethoughtful (this I warn), carry with you living sulphurs
and the bulb of squill and poisonous bitumens,
to bring aid to wounds; nor let Bruttian pitch be lacking
to you: do you, with the liquid unguent of pitch, remember the backs,
if they are shorn, to smear.

uiui quoque pondera melle
argenti coquito lentumque bitumen aheno,
impressurus oui tua nomina; nam tibi lites
auferet ingentes lectus possessor in armo.
Nunc etiam, dum siccus ager, dum feruida tellus,
dum rimosa palus et multo torrida limo
aestuat et fragiles nimium sol puluerat herbas,
lurida conueniet succendere galbana septis
et tua ceruino lustrare mapalia fumo.
obfuit ille malis odor anguibus: ipse uidebis
serpentum cecidisse minas: non stringere dentes
ulla potest uncos, sed inani debilis ore
marcet et obtuso iacet exarmata ueneno.

Also boil in honey the weights of quicksilver and sticky bitumen in a bronze cauldron, being about to impress upon the sheep your names; for a chosen possessor on the shoulder will take away great lawsuits. Now too, while the field is dry, while the earth is seething hot, while the marsh, cracked and torrid with much slime, steams, and the sun powders to dust the too-fragile grasses, it will be fitting to kindle pale galbanum in the folds and to purify your huts with cervine smoke. That odor has harmed evil snakes: you yourself will see the threats of serpents fallen; no serpent can bare its hooked teeth, but, weak with an empty mouth, it withers and lies disarmed, its venom blunted.

Nunc age uicinae circumspice tempora brumae
qua ratione geras. aperit cum uinea sepes
et portat lectas securus circitor uuas,
incipe falce nemus uiuasque recidere frondes.
nunc opus est teneras summatim stringere uirgas,
nunc hiemi seruare comas, dum permanet umor,
dum uiret et tremulas non excutit Africus umbras.

Now come, look around at the times of the neighboring winter,
by what plan you should conduct yourself. When the vineyard opens its hedges
and the overseer on his rounds, untroubled, carries the gathered grapes,
begin with the sickle to cut back the grove and the living leaves.
now there is work to tighten/prune the tender rods all over,
now to keep the foliage for winter, while the moisture endures,
while it is green and the Afric wind does not shake off the trembling shades.

has tibi conueniet tepidis fenilibus olim
promere, cum pecudes extremus clauserit annus.
hac tibi nitendum est, labor hic in tempore noster,
gnauaque sedulitas redit et pastoria uirtus.
ne pigeat ramos siccis miscere recentes
et sucos adhibere nouos, ne torrida nimbis
instet hiems nimioque gelu niuibusque coactis
incursare uetet nemus et constringere frondes;
tu tamen aut leues hederas aut molle salictum
ualle premes media.

these it will be fitting for you someday to bring forth from warm haylofts,
when the last season has shut in the flocks.
on this you must strive; this is our labor in due time,
and busy sedulity returns, and pastoral virtue.
let it not weary you to mix fresh with dry branches
and to apply new juices, lest a winter, searing with storm-clouds,
press on, and with excessive frost and snows compacted
forbid you to raid the grove and to bind the foliage;
you, however, will press down either the light ivies or the soft willow-bed
in the middle of the valley.

sitis est pensanda tuorum,
Canthe, gregum uiridante cibo: nihil aridus illis,
ingenti positus quamuis strue, prosit aceruus.
uirgea si desint liquido turgentia suco
et quibus est aliquid plenae uitale medullae.
praecipue gelidum stipula cum fronde caduca
sterne solum, ne forte rigor penetrabile corpus
urat et interno uastet pecuaria morbo.

the thirst of your herds, Canthe, is to be weighed by verdant fodder: a dry heap, though set in a huge pile, will profit them nothing.
if withy rods swelling with limpid sap are lacking, and such as have some vital substance of a full pith.
especially strew the gelid ground with straw together with falling leafage,
lest perchance the rigor burn the penetrable body and lay waste with an internal pecuarian disease.

Plura quidem meminisse uelim, nam plura supersunt.
sed iam sera dies cadit et iam sole fugato
frigidus aestiuas impellit Noctifer horas."

I would indeed wish to remember more, for more remain.
but now the late day falls, and now, the sun driven away,
the cold Noctifer impels the aestival hours."

BVCOLICA - VI

BUCOLICS - 6

Serus ades, Lycida: modo Nyctilus et puer Alcon
certauere sub his alterno carmine ramis
iudice me, sed non sine pignore. Nyctilus haedos
iuncta matre dedit; catulum dedit ille leaenae
iurauitque genus, sed sustulit omnia uictor.
Nyctilon ut cantu rudis exsuperauerit Alcon,
Astyle, credibile est, si uincat acanthida cornix,
uocalem superet si dirus aedona bubo.

You are late, Lycidas: just now Nyctilus and the boy Alcon
contended beneath these branches with alternating song,
with me as judge, but not without a pledge. Nyctilus gave kids
with their mother included; that one gave a whelp of a lioness
and swore the lineage, but the victor carried off everything.
That Alcon, unskilled in song, should have surpassed Nyctilus,
Astyle, is credible—if a crow should defeat a goldfinch,
if a dire owl should surpass the vocal nightingale.

Non potiar Petale, qua nunc ego maceror una,
si magis aut docili calamorum Nyctilus arte
aut cantu magis est quam uultu proximus illi.
Iam non decipior: te iudice pallidus alter
uenit et hirsuta spinosior hystrice barbam;
candidus alter erat leuique decentior ouo
et ridens oculis crinemque simillimus auro,
qui posset dici, si non cantaret, Apollo.
O Lycida, si quis tibi carminis usus inesset,
tu quoque laudatum nosses Alcona probare.

I shall not obtain Petale, by whom alone I am now being wasted away,
if Nyctilus is nearer to her either by the docile art of reeds
or more by song than by visage.
Now I am not deceived: with you as judge the one came pallid
and with a beard more spiny than a bristly porcupine;
the other was candid and more becoming than a smooth egg
and laughing with his eyes, and his hair most like to gold,
who could be called, if he did not sing, Apollo.
O Lycidas, if any use of song were in you,
you too would know how to approve Alcon when he is praised.

Vis igitur, quoniam nec nobis, improbe, par es,
ipse tuos iudex calamos committere nostris?
uis conferre manum? ueniat licet arbiter Alcon.

Do you wish then, since you are not equal to us either, you shameless one,
yourself as judge, to match your reeds with ours?
do you wish to come to hand? let Alcon come as arbiter.

Vincere tu quemquam? uel te certamine quisquam
dignetur, qui uix stillantes, aride, uoces
rumpis et expellis male singultantia uerba?
Fingas plura licet: nec enim potes, improbe, uera
exprobrare mihi, sicut tibi multa Lycotas.

To defeat anyone, you? Or would anyone deign to engage you in a contest,
you who scarcely, dry one, break forth trickling voices
and expel words that stutter badly?
You may feign more; for you cannot, impudent one, reproach me with true things,
as Lycotas reproaches you with many.

sed quid opus uana consumere tempora lite?
ecce uenit Mnasyllus: erit (nisi forte recusas)
arbiter inflatis non credulus, improbe, uerbis.
Malueram, fateor, uel praedamnatus abire
quam tibi certanti partem committere uocis.

but what need is there to consume time in vain with a quarrel?
look, Mnasyllus comes: he will be (unless perchance you refuse) an arbiter not credulous of inflated words, you shameless one.
I would have preferred, I confess, even to depart pre‑condemned rather than to commit a portion of my voice to you as you contend.

ne tamen hoc impune feras: en adspicis illum,
candida qui medius cubat inter lilia, ceruum?
quamuis hunc Petale mea diligat, accipe uictor
scit frenos et ferre iugum sequiturque uocantem
credulus et mensae non improba porrigit ora.
adspicis, ut fruticat late caput utque sub ipsis
cornibus et tereti pendent redimicula collo?

so that you do not carry this off unpunished: look, do you see that one,
the stag who lies in the midst among the white lilies?
although my Petale loves this one, take it, victor:
he knows the reins and to bear the yoke, and he follows the one calling,
trustful, and he stretches his lips to the table not impudently.
do you see how his head branches widely, and how beneath those very
horns little bands hang, and down his terete neck?

adspicis, ut niueo frons irretita capistro
lucet et a dorso, quae totam circuit aluum,
alternat uitreas lateralis cingula bullas?
cornua subtiles ramosaque tempora molles
implicuere rosae rutiloque monilia torque
extrema ceruice natant, ubi pendulus apri
dens sedet et niuea distinguit pectora luna.
hunc, sicutque uides, pignus, Mnasylle, paciscor
pendere, dum sciat hic se non sine pignore uinci.

Do you see how the brow, ensnared in a snowy halter,
gleams, and how from the back the side cinctures, which encircle the whole belly,
alternate vitreous bosses? The slender horns and branching temples soft
roses have entwined, and necklaces with a ruddy torque float at the far nape,
where the pendulous tusk of a boar sits and a snow-white moon marks the breasts.
This one, just as you see him, as a pledge, Mnasyllus, I covenant to stake,
so that this fellow may know himself not to be conquered without a pledge.

Terreri, Mnasylle, suo me munere credit:
adspice, quam timeam! genus est, ut scitis, equarum
non uulgare mihi; quarum de sanguine ponam
uelocem Petason, qui gramina matre relicta
nunc primum teneris libabit dentibus: illi
terga sedent, micat acre caput, sine pondere ceruix,
pes leuis, adductum latus, excelsissima frons est,
et tornata breui substringitur ungula cornu,
ungula, qua uiridi sic exsultauit in aruo,
tangeret ut fragiles, sed non curuaret, aristas:
hunc dare, si uincar, siluestria numina iuro.
Et uacat et uestros cantus audire iuuabit.

He believes, Mnasylus, that I am terrified by his own gift:
look how much I fear! The breed, as you know, of my mares
is not common; from whose blood I will stake
a swift Petason, who, his mother left behind,
now for the first time will sip the grasses with tender teeth: on him
the loins lie firm, the keen head flashes, the neck is without weight,
the foot is light, the flank drawn in, the brow most lofty,
and the hoof, turned as if on a lathe, is girded with short horn—
a hoof with which he has so bounded on the green field
that he would touch the fragile ears, but not bend them:
I swear by the woodland divinities to give this one, if I am beaten.
And I am at leisure, and it will be a pleasure to hear your songs.

iudice me sane contendite, si libet: istic
protinus ecce torum fecere sub ilice Musae.
Sed, ne uicini nobis sonus obstrepat amnis,
gramina linquamus ripamque uolubilis undae.
namque sub exeso raucum mihi pumice lymphae
respondent et obest arguti glarea riui.

with me as judge, by all means contend, if you please: there
straightway, behold, the Muses have made a couch beneath the holm-oak.
But, lest the sound of the neighboring river drown us out,
let us leave the grasses and the bank of the voluble wave.
for beneath the eaten-away pumice the waters respond hoarsely to me,
and the gravel of the talkative brook is a hindrance.

Si placet, antra magis uicinaque saxa petamus,
saxa, quibus uiridis stillanti uellere muscus
dependet scopulisque cauum sinuantibus arcum
imminet exesa ueluti testudine concha.
Venimus et tacito sonitum mutauimus antro:
seu residere libet, dabit ecce sedilia tophus,
ponere seu cubitum, melior uiret herba tapetis.
nunc mihi seposita reddantur carmina lite;
nam uicibus teneros malim cantetis amores:
Astyle, tu Petalen, Lycida, tu Phyllida lauda.

If it pleases, let us seek caves and the nearer rocks,
rocks on which green moss with dripping fleece
hangs down, and where crags, by curving, make a hollow arch,
and a shell overhangs, as if with the tortoise eaten out.
We have come, and in a silent cave we have changed our sound:
whether it is your pleasure to sit, behold, the tufa will furnish seats,
or to lay down the elbow, the grass is greener, better than carpets.
now let songs be rendered to me, the quarrel set aside;
for by turns I would prefer you to sing tender amours:
Astylus, you praise Petale; Lycidas, you praise Phyllis.

Tu modo nos illis (iam nunc, Mnasylle, precamur)
auribus accipias, quibus hunc et Acanthida nuper
diceris in silua iudex audisse Thalea.
Non equidem possum, cum prouocet iste, tacere.
rumpor enim, Mnasylle: nihil nisi iurgia quaerit.

Only do you receive us with those (even now, Mnasylus, we pray)
ears, with which you are said lately to have heard this fellow and Acanthida
in the wood, with Thalia as judge.
I indeed cannot keep silent, when that fellow provokes.
for I am bursting, Mnasylus: he seeks nothing but wranglings.

audiat aut dicat, quoniam cupit; hoc mihi certe
dulce satis fuerit, Lycidam spectare trementem,
dum te teste palam sua crimina pallidus audit.
Me, puto, uicinus Stimichon, me proximus Aegon
hos inter frutices tacite risere uolentem
oscula cum tenero simulare uirilia Mopso.
Fortior o utinam nondum Mnasyllus adesset!

let him listen or speak, since he desires; this for me surely
will have been sweet enough: to behold Lycidas trembling,
while, with you as witness, pallid he hears his accusations openly.
Me, I suppose, neighbor Stimichon, me, nearest Aegon
among these shrubs tacitly laughed at, as I, wanting
to simulate virile kisses with tender Mopsus.
O if only the stronger Mnasyllus were not yet present!

efficerem, ne te quisquam tibi turpior esset.
Quid furitis, quo uos insania tendere iussit?
si uicibus certare placet - sed non ego uobis
arbiter: hoc alius possit discernere iudex!

I would make it so that no one were to you more base than you yourself.
Why do you rave? Whither has insanity bidden you to tend?
if it pleases you to contend by turns — but I am not for you
an arbiter: another judge could discern this!

et uenit ecce Micon, uenit et uicinus Iollas:
litibus hi uestris poterunt imponere finem.

and behold Micon comes, and the neighbor Iollas comes too:
these can impose an end to your litigations.

BVCOLICA - VII

BUCOLICS - 7

Lentus ab urbe uenis, Corydon; uicesima certe
nox fuit, ut nostrae cupiunt te cernere siluae,
ut tua maerentes exspectant iubila tauri.
O piger, o duro non mollior axe, Lycota,
qui ueteres fagos noua quam spectacula mauis
cernere, quae patula iuuenis deus edit harena.
Mirabar, quae tanta foret tibi causa morandi,
cur tua cessaret taciturnis fistula siluis
et solus Stimichon caneret pallente corymbo:
quem sine te maesti tenero donauimus haedo.

You come slow from the city, Corydon; surely it has been the twentieth
night, how our woods long to behold you,
how the grieving bulls await your jubilations.
O sluggard, O not softer than a hard axle, Lycota,
you who prefer to behold new spectacles rather than the old beeches,
which the young god stages on the broad arena.
I was wondering what so great a cause there might be for you to delay,
why your pipe should be idle in the taciturn woods,
and that Stimichon alone should sing with a pale corymb:
whom, without you, we sadly awarded the tender kid.

nam, dum lentus abes, lustrauit ouilia Thyrsis,
iussit et arguta iuuenes certare cicuta.
Sit licet inuictus Stimichon et praemia diues
auferat, accepto nec solum gaudeat haedo,
uerum tota ferat quae lustrat ouilia Thyrsis:
non tamen aequabit mea gaudia; nec mihi, si quis
omnia Lucanae donet pecuaria siluae,
grata magis fuerint quam quae spectauimus urbe.
Dic age dic, Corydon, nec nostras inuidus aures
despice: non aliter certe mihi dulce loquere
quam cantare soles, quotiens ad sacra uocatur
aut fecunda Pales aut pastoralis Apollo.

for, while you lingered away, Thyrsis surveyed the sheepfolds,
and even bade the youths contend with the shrilling hemlock-reed.
Granted that Stimichon be unconquered and, rich with prizes,
carry them off, and rejoice not only in the kid received,
nay, let him bear off all that Thyrsis surveys of the sheepfolds:
yet he will not equal my joys; nor, if someone should
give me all the livestock-wealth of the Lucanian forest,
would they be more welcome than what we beheld in the city.
Come now, say, say, Corydon, and do not, envious, our ears
despise: surely speak sweetly to me no otherwise
than you are wont to sing, whenever to the rites is summoned
either fertile Pales or pastoral Apollo.

Vidimus in caelum trabibus spectacula textis
surgere, Tarpeium prope despectantia culmen;
emensique gradus et cliuos lene iacentes
uenimus ad sedes, ubi pulla sordida ueste
inter femineas spectabat turba cathedras.
nam quaecumque patent sub aperto libera caelo,
aut eques aut niuei loca densauere tribuni.
qualiter haec patulum concedit uallis in orbem
et sinuata latus resupinis undique siluis
inter continuos curuatur concaua montes:
sic ibi planitiem curuae sinus ambit harenae
et geminis medium se molibus alligat ouum.

We saw the viewing-stands, woven with beams, rise into the sky,
overlooking, as it were, the Tarpeian summit;
and, having traversed the steps and gently lying slopes,
we came to the seats, where a crowd in dusky, sordid garment
was looking on among the women’s chairs.
for whatever places lie open under the free, open sky,
either the equestrian order or the snow-white tribunes have thickened the spots.
just as this valley yields into a wide circle
and, its flank sinuated, with forests reclining on every side,
the hollow is curved among unbroken mountains:
so there the bay of the curved arena encircles the plain
and the egg in the middle binds itself with twin masses.

quid tibi nunc referam, quae uix suffecimus ipsi
per partes spectare suas? sic undique fulgor
percussit. stabam defixus et ore patenti
cunctaque mirabar necdum bona singula noram,
cum mihi iam senior, lateri qui forte sinistro
iunctus erat, "quid te stupefactum, rustice," dixit
"ad tantas miraris opes, qui nescius auri
sordida tecta, casas et sola mapalia nosti?

What am I now to relate to you, things which we ourselves scarcely sufficed
to spectate in their several parts? So on every side splendor
struck me. I stood transfixed and with gaping mouth,
and I was marveling at everything, nor yet had I known the individual good things,
when already an elder, who by chance had been joined to my left side,
said to me, "Why are you, rustic, stupefied," he said,
"that you marvel at such great opulence, you who, unknowing of gold,
know squalid roofs, cottages, and only mapalia?"

en ego iam tremulus iam uertice canus et ista
factus in urbe senex stupeo tamen omnia: certe
uilia sunt nobis, quaecumque prioribus annis
uidimus, et sordet quicquid spectauimus olim."
Balteus en gemmis, en illita porticus auro
certatim radiant; nec non, ubi finis harenae
proxima marmoreo praebet spectacula muro,
sternitur adiunctis ebur admirabile truncis
et coit in rotulum, tereti qui lubricus axe
impositos subita uertigine falleret ungues
excuteretque feras. auro quoque torta refulgent
retia, quae totis in harenam dentibus exstant,
dentibus aequatis; et erat (mihi crede, Lycota,
si qua fides) nostro dens longior omnis aratro.
ordine quid referam?

Behold I, now trembling, now gray at the crown, and in this
city made an old man, yet I am amazed at everything: certainly
whatever we saw in earlier years is cheap to us,
and whatever we once looked upon now seems sordid."
Look, the balteus with gems, look, the portico smeared with gold
shine in rivalry; nor yet, where the boundary of the sand
next to the marble wall provides spectacles,
marvelous ivory is laid, with tusks joined together,
and it comes together into a little wheel, which, sleek on a rounded axle,
would by sudden whirling deceive claws set upon it
and shake off the wild beasts. Twisted with gold the nets also gleam,
which stand out into the sand with teeth along their whole length,
teeth made even; and (believe me, Lycotas,
if there is any trust) every tooth was longer than our plough.
What should I recount in order?

uidi genus omne ferarum,
hic niueos lepores et non sine cornibus apros,
hic raram siluis etiam, quibus editur, alcen.
uidimus et tauros, quibus aut ceruice leuata
deformis scapulis torus eminet aut quibus hirtae
iactantur per colla iubae, quibus aspera mento
barba iacet tremulisque rigent palearia setis.
nec solum nobis siluestria cernere monstra
contigit: aequoreos ego cum certantibus ursis
spectaui uitulos et equorum nomine dictum,
sed deforme pecus, quod in illo nascitur amne
qui sata riparum uernantibus irrigat undis.

I saw every kind of wild beast,
here snow-white hares and boars not without horns,
here the elk, rare even in the woods where it is brought forth.
we also saw bulls, for whom either, the neck lifted,
an unsightly swelling stands out on the shoulders, or for whom shaggy
manes are tossed along their necks, for whom a rough
beard lies on the chin and the dewlaps stiffen with trembling bristles.
nor did it befall us only to behold woodland monsters:
I myself watched sea-calves contending with bears,
and the creature called by the name of horses,
but a misshapen kind, which is born in that river
which irrigates the sown fields of the banks with springing waves.

a! trepidi, quotiens sola discedentis harenae
uidimus inuerti, ruptaque uoragine terrae
emersisse feras; et in isdem saepe cauernis
aurea cum subito creuerunt arbuta nimbo.
O felix Corydon, quem non tremebunda senectus
impedit! o felix, quod in haec tibi saecula primos
indulgente deo demittere contigit annos!

Ah! trembling, how often we saw the very floors of the withdrawing sand
turned over, and, the earth burst with a whirlpool, the beasts
emerge; and in these same caverns often golden arbutus
suddenly sprang up at a cloudburst.
O happy Corydon, whom tremulous old age
does not impede! O happy, that into these ages it has befallen you, by an indulgent god,
to spend your first years!

nunc, tibi si propius uenerandum cernere numen
fors dedit et praesens uultumque habitumque notasti,
dic age dic, Corydon, quae sit mihi forma deorum.
O utinam nobis non rustica uestis inesset:
uidissem propius mea numina! sed mihi sordes
pullaque paupertas et adunco fibula morsu
obfuerunt.

now, if by chance it has been given to you to behold more closely the venerable numen,
and, being present, you have noted the visage and the habit, say, come say, Corydon, what the form of the gods is for me.
O would that a rustic garment were not upon me:
I would have seen my divinities nearer! but squalor
and dusky poverty and a brooch with a hooked bite
have hindered me.

utcumque tamen conspeximus ipsum
longius; ac, nisi me uisus decepit, in uno
et Martis uultus et Apollinis esse putaui.

however, yet we caught sight of him
from farther off; and, unless my vision deceived me, in one
I thought there were the visages of Mars and of Apollo.