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Jam mihi per rupes videor lucosque sonantes

Ire;

libet Partho torquere Cydonia cornu

Spicula: tanquam haec sint nostri medicina furoris, 60

Aut deus ille malis hominum mitescere discat.

S

65

Jam neque Hamadryades' rursum, nec carmina nobis
Ipsa placent; ipsae rursum concedite sylvae.
Non illum nostri possunt mutare labores;
Nec, si frigoribus mediis Hebrumque bibamus,
Sithoniasque nives hyemis subeamus aquosae,
Nec si, cum moriens alta liber aret in ulmo,
Aethiopum" versemus oves sub sidere Cancri.
Omina vincit Amor; et nos cedamus Amori.
Haec sat erit, divae, vestrum cecinisse poëtam, 70
Dum sedet, et gracili fiscellam texit hibisco,

9 Partho torquere Cydonia cornu spicula. The Parthians and Cretans were famous archers; and Cydon is a city of Crete. Bows were frequently made of the horns of beasts.

The Hamadryades are those Nymphs which belong to particular trees, and are born and perish together with them. Their name is derived from aua, together, and deũ;, an oak.

s Hebrum. A very great river of Thrace, now called Marisa ; which anciently rolled over golden sands. It flows into the Ægean sea; and rises from the mountain Rhodope, which is taken by some to be part of Haemus; and therefore Hebrus is said by them to flow from Haemus

t Sithonia is a part of Thrace, a very cold and snowy country. "Ethiopia is a large region of Africa, within the torrid zone.

Pierides; vos haec facietis maxima Gallo :
Gallo, cujus amor tantum mihi crescit in horas,
Quantum vere novo viridis se subjicit alnus.
Surgamus: solet esse gravis cantantibus umbra;
Juniperi gravis umbra; nocent et frugibus umbrae.
Ite domum saturae, venit Hesperus, ite, Capellae.

75

TRANSLATION.

THE

BUCOLICS OF VIRGIL

TRANSLATED.

ECLOGUE I.

MELIBOEUS, TITYRUS.

MELIBOEUS.

O Tityrus, thou lying under the protection of a widespreading beech, exercisest thy rustic Muse on a slender reed. We leave the confines of our country and sweet fields; we flee our country. Thou, Tityrus, stretched at length in the shade, teachest the woods to echo, beautiful Amaryllis.

TITYRUS.

O Meliboeus, a Deity has made this leisure for us, for he will be always a Deity to me: often a young lamb from our folds shall stain his Altar. He has permitted my cattle to wan

der, as thou seest, and myself to play as I will upon my rustic reed.

MELIBOEUS.

Indeed, I am not envious; I wonder the more; there being at this time a continued tumult on every side, throughout the land: myself sick, I drive my goats afar. O Tityrus, even with difficulty I lead this; for just now having yeaned twins, the hope of my flock, here among the thick hazels-ah! she has left them upon the naked flinty rock. I remember the oak struck from heaven often to foretel this evil to us, if there had not been a fatality to prejudice my mind: often the ill-boding crow foretold it from the hollow holm-oak: yet, nevertheless, tell me who this Deity may be.

TITYRUS.

O Melibocus, I, a fool, thought the city which is called Rome, like to this of our's, whither we shepherds are often accustomed to drive the young of our sheep. As I knew whelps were like dogs, and kids their dams, so I was accustomed to compare great things with small. But this lifts her head amongst other cities, as much as cypresses are wont among the pliant viburna.

MELIBOEus.

And what was the important reason for thy seeing Rome?

TITYRUS.

Liberty; which, though I was inactive, looked upon me at last, after my hoary beard was shorn; yet she looked upon me, and at length came, since Galatea abandoned us, and Amaryllis protected us. For whilst Galatea retained me, I confess, there was neither hope of liberty nor inducement to take care of my property. Although

many a victim went cut from my folds, and many a fat cheese was pressed for the ill-requiting city; yet, on the other hand, it never returned money home to me.

MELIBOEUS.

Amaryllis, I wondered that thou, plaintive, didst supplicate the Gods;-for whom thou didst suffer the fruit to hang on its own tree.-Tityrus, from hence, is absent! O Tityrus, the pines themselves call thee; the fountains, these groves themselves invoke thee.

TITYRUS,

What could I do? neither was it permitted me to quit servitude, nor to know such propitious Gods elsewhere. O Meliboeus, here have I seen him, a youth, for whom our Altars smoke twice six days annually. Here, he first gave an answer to me, petitioning: "Lads, feed your cattle as before, and as before make your oxen subservient to the yoke.”

MELIBOEUS.

Fortunate old man! therefore thy lauds will remain, and great enough for thee, although naked rock and swamp cover all thy pasture with marsh-rush: unwholesome food shall not tempt thy pregnant ewes, nor bad contagion hurt them from a neighbouring flock. Fortunate old man! here, among famed rivers and sacred fountains, thou shalt enjoy the cool shade. From hence, the Hyblean bees, which always in thy hedges, on the flowering sallow fed, shall often with their gentle murmur sooth thee to sleep. From hence, thou shalt hear the Pruner sing to the breezes under the high rock: nevertheless, in the mean while, shall the cooing wood pigeons, thy delight, nor the turtle, cease to mean, from the lofty elm.

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