Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. We know who once, and in what shrine with you—
  2. the he-goats looked aside—the light nymphs laughed—
MENALCAS
  1. Ay, then, I warrant, when they saw me slash
  2. micon's young vines and trees with spiteful hook.
DAMOETAS
  1. Or here by these old beeches, when you broke
  2. the bow and arrows of Damon; for you chafed
  3. when first you saw them given to the boy,
  4. cross-grained Menalcas, ay, and had you not
  5. done him some mischief, would have chafed to death.
MENALCAS
  1. With thieves so daring, what can masters do?
  2. Did I not see you, rogue, in ambush lie
  3. for Damon's goat, while loud Lycisca barked?
  4. And when I cried, “Where is he off to now?
  5. Gather your flock together, Tityrus,”
  6. you hid behind the sedges.
DAMOETAS
  1. Well, was he
  2. whom I had conquered still to keep the goat.
  3. Which in the piping-match my pipe had won!
  4. You may not know it, but the goat was mine.
MENALCAS
  1. You out-pipe him? when had you ever pipe