Eclogues

Virgil

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

  • nor Thracian Orpheus should out-sing me then,
  • nor Linus, though his mother this, and that
  • his sire should aid—Orpheus Calliope,
  • and Linus fair Apollo. Nay, though Pan,
  • with Arcady for judge, my claim contest,
  • with Arcady for judge great Pan himself
  • should own him foiled, and from the field retire.
  • Begin to greet thy mother with a smile,
  • o baby-boy! ten months of weariness
  • for thee she bore: O baby-boy, begin!
  • For him, on whom his parents have not smiled,
  • gods deem not worthy of their board or bed.
    • MENALCAS
    1. Why, Mopsus, being both together met,
    2. you skilled to breathe upon the slender reeds,
    3. I to sing ditties, do we not sit down
    4. here where the elm-trees and the hazels blend?