Eclogues

Virgil

Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.

  1. even the laurels and the tamarisks wept;
  2. for him, outstretched beneath a lonely rock,
  3. wept pine-clad Maenalus, and the flinty crags
  4. of cold Lycaeus. The sheep too stood around—
  5. of us they feel no shame, poet divine;
  6. nor of the flock be thou ashamed: even fair
  7. Adonis by the rivers fed his sheep—
  8. came shepherd too, and swine-herd footing slow,
  9. and, from the winter-acorns dripping-wet
  10. Menalcas. All with one accord exclaim:
  11. “From whence this love of thine?” Apollo came;
  12. “Gallus, art mad?” he cried, “thy bosom's care
  13. another love is following.” Therewithal
  14. Silvanus came, with rural honours crowned;
  15. the flowering fennels and tall lilies shook
  16. before him. Yea, and our own eyes beheld
  17. pan, god of Arcady, with blood-red juice
  18. of the elder-berry, and with vermilion, dyed.
  19. “Wilt ever make an end?” quoth he, “behold
  20. love recks not aught of it: his heart no more