Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. Where the plump barley-grain so oft we sowed,
  2. there but wild oats and barren darnel spring;
  3. for tender violet and narcissus bright
  4. thistle and prickly thorn uprear their heads.
  5. Now, O ye shepherds, strew the ground with leaves,
  6. and o'er the fountains draw a shady veil—
  7. so Daphnis to his memory bids be done—
  8. and rear a tomb, and write thereon this verse:
  9. ‘I, Daphnis in the woods, from hence in fame
  10. am to the stars exalted, guardian once
  11. of a fair flock, myself more fair than they.’”
MENALCAS
  1. So is thy song to me, poet divine,
  2. as slumber on the grass to weary limbs,
  3. or to slake thirst from some sweet-bubbling rill
  4. in summer's heat. Nor on the reeds alone,
  5. but with thy voice art thou, thrice happy boy,
  6. ranked with thy master, second but to him.
  7. Yet will I, too, in turn, as best I may,
  8. sing thee a song, and to the stars uplift
  9. thy Daphnis—Daphnis to the stars extol,