Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. you skilled to breathe upon the slender reeds,
  2. I to sing ditties, do we not sit down
  3. here where the elm-trees and the hazels blend?
MOPSUS
  1. You are the elder, 'tis for me to bide
  2. your choice, Menalcas, whether now we seek
  3. yon shade that quivers to the changeful breeze,
  4. or the cave's shelter. Look you how the cave
  5. is with the wild vine's clusters over-laced!
MENALCAS
  1. None but Amyntas on these hills of ours
  2. can vie with you.
MOPSUS
  1. What if he also strive
  2. to out-sing Phoebus?
MENALCAS
  1. Do you first begin,
  2. good Mopsus, whether minded to sing aught
  3. of Phyllis and her loves, or Alcon's praise,
  4. or to fling taunts at Codrus. Come, begin,
  5. while Tityrus watches o'er the grazing kids.
MOPSUS
  1. Nay, then, I will essay what late I carved
  2. on a green beech-tree's rind, playing by turns,
  3. and marking down the notes; then afterward