Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. If eager for the prized Olympian palm
  2. One breed the horse, or bullock strong to plough,
  3. Be his prime care a shapely dam to choose.
  4. Of kine grim-faced is goodliest, with coarse head
  5. And burly neck, whose hanging dewlaps reach
  6. From chin to knee; of boundless length her flank;
  7. Large every way she is, large-footed even,
  8. With incurved horns and shaggy ears beneath.
  9. Nor let mislike me one with spots of white
  10. Conspicuous, or that spurns the yoke, whose horn
  11. At times hath vice in't: liker bull-faced she,
  12. And tall-limbed wholly, and with tip of tail
  13. Brushing her footsteps as she walks along.
  14. The age for Hymen's rites, Lucina's pangs,
  15. Ere ten years ended, after four begins;
  16. Their residue of days nor apt to teem,
  17. Nor strong for ploughing. Meantime, while youth's delight
  18. Survives within them, loose the males: be first
  19. To speed thy herds of cattle to their loves,
  20. Breed stock with stock, and keep the race supplied.
  21. Ah! life's best hours are ever first to fly
  22. From hapless mortals; in their place succeed
  23. Disease and dolorous eld; till travail sore
  24. And death unpitying sweep them from the scene.
  25. Still will be some, whose form thou fain wouldst change;
  26. Renew them still; with yearly choice of young
  27. Preventing losses, lest too late thou rue.