Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. Let none persuade thee, howso weighty-wise,
  2. To stir the soil when stiff with Boreas' breath.
  3. Then ice-bound winter locks the fields, nor lets
  4. The young plant fix its frozen root to earth.
  5. Best sow your vineyards when in blushing Spring
  6. Comes the white bird long-bodied snakes abhor,
  7. Or on the eve of autumn's earliest frost,
  8. Ere the swift sun-steeds touch the wintry Signs,
  9. While summer is departing. Spring it is
  10. Blesses the fruit-plantation, Spring the groves;
  11. In Spring earth swells and claims the fruitful seed.
  12. Then Aether, sire omnipotent, leaps down
  13. With quickening showers to his glad wife's embrace,
  14. And, might with might commingling, rears to life
  15. All germs that teem within her; then resound
  16. With songs of birds the greenwood-wildernesses,
  17. And in due time the herds their loves renew;
  18. Then the boon earth yields increase, and the fields
  19. Unlock their bosoms to the warm west winds;
  20. Soft moisture spreads o'er all things, and the blades
  21. Face the new suns, and safely trust them now;
  22. The vine-shoot, fearless of the rising south,
  23. Or mighty north winds driving rain from heaven,
  24. Bursts into bud, and every leaf unfolds.
  25. Even so, methinks, when Earth to being sprang,
  26. Dawned the first days, and such the course they held;
  27. 'Twas Spring-tide then, ay, Spring, the mighty world
  28. Was keeping: Eurus spared his wintry blasts,
  29. When first the flocks drank sunlight, and a race
  30. Of men like iron from the hard glebe arose,
  31. And wild beasts thronged the woods, and stars the heaven.
  32. Nor could frail creatures bear this heavy strain,
  33. Did not so large a respite interpose
  34. 'Twixt frost and heat, and heaven's relenting arms
  35. Yield earth a welcome.