Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. But no, not Mede-land with its wealth of woods,
  2. Nor Ganges fair, and Hermus thick with gold,
  3. Can match the praise of Italy; nor Ind,
  4. Nor Bactria, nor Panchaia, one wide tract
  5. Of incense-teeming sand. Here never bulls
  6. With nostrils snorting fire upturned the sod
  7. Sown with the monstrous dragon's teeth, nor crop
  8. Of warriors bristled thick with lance and helm;
  9. But heavy harvests and the Massic juice
  10. Of Bacchus fill its borders, overspread
  11. With fruitful flocks and olives. Hence arose
  12. The war-horse stepping proudly o'er the plain;
  13. Hence thy white flocks, Clitumnus, and the bull,
  14. Of victims mightiest, which full oft have led,
  15. Bathed in thy sacred stream, the triumph-pomp
  16. Of Romans to the temples of the gods.
  17. Here blooms perpetual spring, and summer here
  18. In months that are not summer's; twice teem the flocks;
  19. Twice doth the tree yield service of her fruit.
  20. But ravening tigers come not nigh, nor breed
  21. Of savage lion, nor aconite betrays
  22. Its hapless gatherers, nor with sweep so vast
  23. Doth the scaled serpent trail his endless coils
  24. Along the ground, or wreathe him into spires.
  25. Mark too her cities, so many and so proud,
  26. Of mighty toil the achievement, town on town
  27. Up rugged precipices heaved and reared,
  28. And rivers undergliding ancient walls.
  29. Or should I celebrate the sea that laves
  30. Her upper shores and lower? or those broad lakes?
  31. Thee, Larius, greatest and, Benacus, thee
  32. With billowy uproar surging like the main?
  33. Or sing her harbours, and the barrier cast
  34. Athwart the Lucrine, and how ocean chafes
  35. With mighty bellowings, where the Julian wave
  36. Echoes the thunder of his rout, and through
  37. Avernian inlets pours the Tuscan tide?
  38. A land no less that in her veins displays
  39. Rivers of silver, mines of copper ore,
  40. Ay, and with gold hath flowed abundantly.
  41. A land that reared a valiant breed of men,
  42. The Marsi and Sabellian youth, and, schooled
  43. To hardship, the Ligurian, and with these
  44. The Volscian javelin-armed, the Decii too,
  45. The Marii and Camilli, names of might,
  46. The Scipios, stubborn warriors, ay, and thee,
  47. Great Caesar, who in Asia's utmost bounds
  48. With conquering arm e'en now art fending far
  49. The unwarlike Indian from the heights of Rome.
  50. Hail! land of Saturn, mighty mother thou
  51. Of fruits and heroes; 'tis for thee I dare
  52. Unseal the sacred fountains, and essay
  53. Themes of old art and glory, as I sing
  54. The song of Ascra through the towns of Rome.