Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. Once with your mother, in our orchard-garth,
  2. a little maid I saw you—I your guide—
  3. plucking the dewy apples. My twelfth year
  4. I scarce had entered, and could barely reach
  5. the brittle boughs. I looked, and I was lost;
  6. a sudden frenzy swept my wits away.
  7. Now know I what Love is: 'mid savage rocks
  8. tmaros or Rhodope brought forth the boy,
  9. or Garamantes in earth's utmost bounds—
  10. no kin of ours, nor of our blood begot.
  11. Fierce Love it was once steeled a mother's heart
  12. with her own offspring's blood her hands to imbrue:
  13. mother, thou too wert cruel; say wert thou
  14. more cruel, mother, or more ruthless he?
  15. Ruthless the boy, thou, mother, cruel too.
  16. Now let the wolf turn tail and fly the sheep,
  17. tough oaks bear golden apples, alder-trees