The Bucolics and Ecloges [English] | Page 5

all men the whole round of heaven,?That they who reap, or stoop behind the plough,?Might know their several seasons? Nor as yet?Have I set lip to them, but lay them by.
DAMOETAS?For me too wrought the same Alcimedon?A pair of cups, and round the handles wreathed?Pliant acanthus, Orpheus in the midst,?The forests following in his wake; nor yet?Have I set lip to them, but lay them by.?Matched with a heifer, who would prate of cups?
MENALCAS?You shall not balk me now; where'er you bid,?I shall be with you; only let us have?For auditor- or see, to serve our turn,?Yonder Palaemon comes! In singing-bouts?I'll see you play the challenger no more.
DAMOETAS?Out then with what you have; I shall not shrink,?Nor budge for any man: only do you,?Neighbour Palaemon, with your whole heart's skillFor?it is no slight matter-play your part.
PALAEMON?Say on then, since on the greensward we sit,?And now is burgeoning both field and tree;?Now is the forest green, and now the year?At fairest. Do you first, Damoetas, sing,?Then you, Menalcas, in alternate strain:?Alternate strains are to the Muses dear.
DAMOETAS?"From Jove the Muse began; Jove filleth all,?Makes the earth fruitful, for my songs hath care."
MENALCAS?"Me Phoebus loves; for Phoebus his own gifts,?Bays and sweet-blushing hyacinths, I keep."
DAMOETAS?"Gay Galatea throws an apple at me,?Then hies to the willows, hoping to be seen."
MENALCAS?"My dear Amyntas comes unasked to me;?Not Delia to my dogs is better known."
DAMOETAS?"Gifts for my love I've found; mine eyes have marked?Where the wood-pigeons build their airy nests."
MENALCAS?"Ten golden apples have I sent my boy,?All that I could, to-morrow as many more."
DAMOETAS?"What words to me, and uttered O how oft,?Hath Galatea spoke! waft some of them,?Ye winds, I pray you, for the gods to hear."
MENALCAS?"It profiteth me naught, Amyntas mine,?That in your very heart you spurn me not,?If, while you hunt the boar, I guard the nets."
DAMOETAS?"Prithee, Iollas, for my birthday guest?Send me your Phyllis; when for the young crops?I slay my heifer, you yourself shall come."
MENALCAS?"I am all hers; she wept to see me go,?And, lingering on the word, 'farewell' she said,?'My beautiful Iollas, fare you well.'"
DAMOETAS?"Fell as the wolf is to the folded flock,?Rain to ripe corn, Sirocco to the trees,?The wrath of Amaryllis is to me."
MENALCAS?"As moisture to the corn, to ewes with young?Lithe willow, as arbute to the yeanling kids,?So sweet Amyntas, and none else, to me."
DAMOETAS?"My Muse, although she be but country-bred,?Is loved by Pollio: O Pierian Maids,?Pray you, a heifer for your reader feed!"
MENALCAS?"Pollio himself too doth new verses make:?Feed ye a bull now ripe to butt with horn,?And scatter with his hooves the flying sand."
DAMOETAS?"Who loves thee, Pollio, may he thither come?Where thee he joys beholding; ay, for him?Let honey flow, the thorn-bush spices bear."
MENALCAS?"Who hates not Bavius, let him also love?Thy songs, O Maevius, ay, and therewithal?Yoke foxes to his car, and he-goats milk."
DAMOETAS?"You, picking flowers and strawberries that grow?So near the ground, fly hence, boys, get you gone!?There's a cold adder lurking in the grass."
MENALCAS?"Forbear, my sheep, to tread too near the brink;?Yon bank is ill to trust to; even now?The ram himself, see, dries his dripping fleece!"
DAMOETAS?"Back with the she-goats, Tityrus, grazing there?So near the river! I, when time shall serve,?Will take them all, and wash them in the pool."
MENALCAS?"Boys, get your sheep together; if the heat,?As late it did, forestall us with the milk,?Vainly the dried-up udders shall we wring."
DAMOETAS?"How lean my bull amid the fattening vetch!?Alack! alack! for herdsman and for herd!?It is the self-same love that wastes us both."
MENALCAS?"These truly- nor is even love the causeScarce?have the flesh to keep their bones together?Some evil eye my lambkins hath bewitched."
DAMOETAS?"Say in what clime- and you shall be withal?My great Apollo- the whole breadth of heaven?Opens no wider than three ells to view."
MENALCAS?"Say in what country grow such flowers as bear?The names of kings upon their petals writ,?And you shall have fair Phyllis for your own."
PALAEMON?Not mine betwixt such rivals to decide:?You well deserve the heifer, so does he,?With all who either fear the sweets of love,?Or taste its bitterness. Now, boys, shut off?The sluices, for the fields have drunk their fill.
ECLOGUE IV
POLLIO
Muses of Sicily, essay we now?A somewhat loftier task! Not all men love?Coppice or lowly tamarisk: sing we woods,?Woods worthy of a Consul let them be.
Now the last age by Cumae's Sibyl sung?Has come and gone, and the majestic roll?Of circling centuries begins anew:?Justice returns, returns old Saturn's reign,?With a new breed of men sent down from heaven.?Only do thou, at the boy's birth in whom?The iron shall cease, the golden race arise,?Befriend him, chaste Lucina; 'tis thine own?Apollo reigns. And in thy consulate,?This glorious age, O Pollio, shall begin,?And the months enter on their mighty march.?Under thy guidance, whatso tracks remain?Of our old wickedness, once done away,?Shall free the earth from never-ceasing fear.?He shall receive the life of gods,