Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. Say on then, since on the greensward we sit,
  2. and now is burgeoning both field and tree;
  3. now is the forest green, and now the year
  4. at fairest. Do you first, Damoetas, sing,
  5. then you, Menalcas, in alternate strain:
  6. alternate strains are to the Muses dear.
DAMOETAS
  1. “From Jove the Muse began; Jove filleth all,
  2. makes the earth fruitful, for my songs hath care.”
MENALCAS
  1. “Me Phoebus loves; for Phoebus his own gifts,
  2. bays and sweet-blushing hyacinths, I keep.”
DAMOETAS
  1. “Gay Galatea throws an apple at me,
  2. then hies to the willows, hoping to be seen.”
MENALCAS
  1. “My dear Amyntas comes unasked to me;
  2. not Delia to my dogs is better known.”
DAMOETAS
  1. “Gifts for my love I've found; mine eyes have marked
  2. where the wood-pigeons build their airy nests.”
MENALCAS
  1. “Ten golden apples have I sent my boy,
  2. all that I could, to-morrow as many more.”
DAMOETAS
  1. “What words to me, and uttered O how oft,
  2. hath Galatea spoke! waft some of them,