Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. How each to recognize now hear me tell.
  2. Dost ask if loose or passing firm it be—
  3. Since one for corn hath liking, one for wine,
  4. The firmer sort for Ceres, none too loose
  5. For thee, Lyaeus?—with scrutinizing eye
  6. First choose thy ground, and bid a pit be sunk
  7. Deep in the solid earth, then cast the mould
  8. All back again, and stamp the surface smooth.
  9. If it suffice not, loose will be the land,
  10. More meet for cattle and for kindly vines;
  11. But if, rebellious, to its proper bounds
  12. The soil returns not, but fills all the trench
  13. And overtops it, then the glebe is gross;
  14. Look for stiff ridges and reluctant clods,
  15. And with strong bullocks cleave the fallow crust.
  16. Salt ground again, and bitter, as 'tis called—
  17. Barren for fruits, by tilth untamable,
  18. Nor grape her kind, nor apples their good name
  19. Maintaining—will in this wise yield thee proof:
  20. Stout osier-baskets from the rafter-smoke,
  21. And strainers of the winepress pluck thee down;
  22. Hereinto let that evil land, with fresh
  23. Spring-water mixed, be trampled to the full;
  24. The moisture, mark you, will ooze all away,
  25. In big drops issuing through the osier-withes,
  26. But plainly will its taste the secret tell,
  27. And with a harsh twang ruefully distort
  28. The mouths of them that try it. Rich soil again
  29. We learn on this wise: tossed from hand to hand
  30. Yet cracks it never, but pitch-like, as we hold,
  31. Clings to the fingers. A land with moisture rife
  32. Breeds lustier herbage, and is more than meet
  33. Prolific. Ah I may never such for me
  34. O'er-fertile prove, or make too stout a show
  35. At the first earing! Heavy land or light
  36. The mute self-witness of its weight betrays.
  37. A glance will serve to warn thee which is black,
  38. Or what the hue of any. But hard it is
  39. To track the signs of that pernicious cold:
  40. Pines only, noxious yews, and ivies dark
  41. At times reveal its traces.