Dante: Eclogae

Vidimus in nigris albo patiente lituris
Pyerio demulsa sinu modulamina nobis.
Forte recensentes pastas de more capellas
tunc ego sub quercu meus et Melibeus eramus.
Ille quidem, cupiebat enim consciscere cantum, 5
"Tityre, quid Mopsus?

We saw, in black blottings, the white being patient,
the modulations stroked for us from the Pierian bosom.
By chance, reviewing as usual the she-goats that had fed,
then I and my Meliboeus were beneath an oak.
He indeed—for he was eager to adjudge the song— 5
“Tityrus, what of Mopsus?”

quid vult? edissere " dixit.
Ridebam, Mopse; magis et magis ille premebat.

"What does he want? Expound," he said.
I was laughing, Mopsus; he pressed more and more.

Victus amore sui, posito vix denique risu,
"Stulte, quid insanis?" inquam: "tua cura capelle
te potius poscunt, quamquam mala cenula turbet. 10
Pascua sunt ignota tibi que Menalus alto
vertice declivi celator solis inumbrat,
herbarum varium florumque inpicta colore.
Circuit hec humilis et tectus fronde saligna
perpetuis undis a summo margine ripas 15

Conquered by love of himself, his laughter at last scarcely set aside,
"Fool, why do you rave?" I say: "your care, the she-goats
demand you rather, although a bad little dinner disturbs. 10
The pastures are unknown to you which Menalus with its high
summit sloping, the concealer of the sun, overshadows,
various in grasses and unpainted with the color of flowers.
This lowly course, and covered with willow frondage,
encircles the banks with perpetual waves from the top margin 15

rorans alveolus, qui, quas mons desuper edit,
sponte viam, qua mitis eat, se fecit aquarum.
Mopsus in his, dum lenta boves per gramina ludunt,
contemplare ovans hominum superumque labores:
inde per inflatos calamos interna recludit               20
gaudia sic ut dulce melos armenta sequantur,
placatique ruant campis de monte leones,
et refluant unde, frondes et Menala nutent".
"Tityre," tunc "si Mopsus" ait "decantat in herbis
ignotis, ignota tamens sua carmina possum,               25
te mostrante, meis vagulis prodiscere capris".
Hic ego quid pteram, cum sic instaret anhelus?
"Montibus Aoniis Mopsus, Melibee, quot annis,
dum satagunt alii causarum iura doceri,
se dedit et sacris nemoris perpalluit umbra.               30

the dripping little channel, which, for such waters as the mountain from above emits,
of its own accord has made a way by which gentle it may go of the waters.
In these haunts Mopsus, while the cattle, slow, play through the grasses,
exulting contemplates the labors of men and of the supernal ones:
then through inflated reeds he unlocks inner things               20
such joys that the herds follow the sweet melos,
and appeased lions rush from the mountain to the fields,
and from whence they flow back, the fronds and the Menala nod."
"Tityrus," then he says, "if Mopsus chants upon unknown grasses,
yet I can, unknown though they be, learn his songs,               25
you showing the way, together with my wandering little goats."
Here I—what could I do, since he pressed me thus, breathless?
"On the Aonian mountains Mopsus, Meliboeus, for how many years,
while others bustle to be taught the laws of causes,
has devoted himself and has grown pale in the sacred shade of the grove.               30

Vatificis prolutus aquis, et lacte canoro
viscera plena ferens et plenus ad usque palatum,
me vocat ad frondes versa Peneyde cretas".
"Quid facies?" Melibeus ait: "tu tempora lauro
semper inornata per pascua pastor habebis?"               35
"O Melibee, decus vatum, quoque nomen in auras
fluxit, et insomnem vix Mopsum Musa peregit",
retuleram, cum sic dedit indignatio vocem:
"Quantos balatus colles et prata sonabunt,
si viridante coma fidibus peana ciebo!               40
Sed timeam saltus et rura ignara deorum.
Nonne triumphales melius pexare capillos
pe patrio, redeam si quando, abscondere canos
fronde sub inserta solitum flavescere Sarno?"
Ille: "Quis hoc dubitet? propter quod respice tempus               45

Washed by vatic waters, and bearing my viscera full with canorous milk and full even up to the palate,
he calls me to the leaves, the Peneïd having been turned into them, to chalk them."
"What will you do?" says Meliboeus: "will you, a shepherd, have your temples always unadorned with laurel through the pastures?"               35
"O Meliboeus, glory of vates, you whose name also has flowed into the air,
and the Muse has scarcely borne Mopsus sleepless,"
I had replied, when indignation thus gave voice:
"With how many bleatings will the hills and meadows resound,
if, with green tresses, I stir a paean on the lyres!               40
But I would fear glades and fields ignorant of the gods.
Is it not better to comb triumphant hair with the ancestral comb,
and, if ever I return to the fatherland, to hide my gray hairs
beneath an inserted frond, accustomed to grow golden by the Sarnus?"
He: "Who would doubt this? therefore have regard to the time               45

Tityre, quam velox; nam iam senuere capelle
quas concepturis dedimus nos matribus hircos".
Tunc ego: "Cum mundi circumflua corpora cantu
astricoleque meo, velut infera regna, patebunt,
devincire caput hedera lauroque iuvabit:               50
concedat Mopsus". "Mopsus" tunc ille "quid?" inquit.
"Comica nonne vides ipsum reprehendere verba,
tum quia femineo resonant ut trita labello,
tum quia Castalias, pudet acceptare sorores?"
ipse ego respondi, versus iterumque relegi,               55
Mopse, tuos. Tunc ille humeros contraxit et "Ergo
quid faciemus" ait "Mopsum revocare volentes?"
"Est mecum quam noscis ovis gratissima" dixi
"ubera vix que ferre potest, tam lactis abundans;
rupe sub ingenti carptas modo ruminat herbas;               60

Tityrus, how swift; for already the she-goats have grown old to whom we gave he-goats to beget for the mothers".
Then I: "When the circumflowing bodies of the world and the star-dwellers by my song, just as the infernal realms, will lie open, it will be pleasing to bind fast the head with ivy and laurel:               50
let Mopsus concede." "Mopsus," then he, "what?" he says.
"Do you not see him himself reproving the comic words, both because they ring as if worn by a feminine lip, and because he is ashamed to accept the Castalian sisters?"
I myself replied, and I re-read again, Mopsus, your verses,               55
Then he drew up his shoulders and said, "So what shall we do, wishing to call Mopsus back?"
"There is with me a most dear ewe, which you know," I said, "whose udders can scarcely even bear, so abundant in milk; beneath a huge crag she now ruminates the herbs just plucked;               60

nulli iuncta gregi nullis assuetaque caulis,
sponte venire solet, numquam vi, poscere mulctram.
Hanc ego prestolor manibus mulgere paratis,
hac inplebo decem missurus vascula Mopso.
Tu tamen interdum capros meditere petulcos 65
et duris crustis discas infingere dentes".
Talias sub quercu Melibeus et ipse canebam
parva tabernacla nobis dum farra coquebant.

joined to no flock and used to no folds,
she is wont to come of her own accord, never by force, to ask for the milk-pail.
This one I await with hands prepared to milk,
with this I will fill ten little vessels to be sent to Mopsus.
Yet do you sometimes practice upon the frisky he-goats 65
and learn to infix your teeth into hard crusts."
Such things beneath an oak I myself, Meliboeus, was singing
while the little huts were cooking spelt for us.