Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. Many the precepts of the men of old
  2. I can recount thee, so thou start not back,
  3. And such slight cares to learn not weary thee.
  4. And this among the first: thy threshing-floor
  5. With ponderous roller must be levelled smooth,
  6. And wrought by hand, and fixed with binding chalk,
  7. Lest weeds arise, or dust a passage win
  8. Splitting the surface, then a thousand plagues
  9. Make sport of it: oft builds the tiny mouse
  10. Her home, and plants her granary, underground,
  11. Or burrow for their bed the purblind moles,
  12. Or toad is found in hollows, and all the swarm
  13. Of earth's unsightly creatures; or a huge
  14. Corn-heap the weevil plunders, and the ant,
  15. Fearful of coming age and penury.
  16. Mark too, what time the walnut in the woods
  17. With ample bloom shall clothe her, and bow down
  18. Her odorous branches, if the fruit prevail,
  19. Like store of grain will follow, and there shall come
  20. A mighty winnowing-time with mighty heat;
  21. But if the shade with wealth of leaves abound,
  22. Vainly your threshing-floor will bruise the stalks
  23. Rich but in chaff. Many myself have seen
  24. Steep, as they sow, their pulse-seeds, drenching them
  25. With nitre and black oil-lees, that the fruit
  26. Might swell within the treacherous pods, and they
  27. Make speed to boil at howso small a fire.
  28. Yet, culled with caution, proved with patient toil,
  29. These have I seen degenerate, did not man
  30. Put forth his hand with power, and year by year
  31. Choose out the largest. So, by fate impelled,
  32. Speed all things to the worse, and backward borne
  33. Glide from us; even as who with struggling oars
  34. Up stream scarce pulls a shallop, if he chance
  35. His arms to slacken, lo! with headlong force
  36. The current sweeps him down the hurrying tide.