Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. Better have borne the petulant proud disdain
  2. of Amaryllis, or Menalcas wooed,
  3. albeit he was so dark, and you so fair!
  4. Trust not too much to colour, beauteous boy;
  5. white privets fall, dark hyacinths are culled.
  6. You scorn me, Alexis, who or what I am
  7. care not to ask—how rich in flocks, or how
  8. in snow-white milk abounding: yet for me
  9. roam on Sicilian hills a thousand lambs;
  10. summer or winter, still my milk-pails brim.
  11. I sing as erst Amphion of Circe sang,
  12. what time he went to call his cattle home
  13. on Attic Aracynthus. Nor am I
  14. so ill to look on: lately on the beach
  15. I saw myself, when winds had stilled the sea,
  16. and, if that mirror lie not, would not fear