Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. Even him, when sore disease or sluggish eld
  2. Now saps his strength, pen fast at home, and spare
  3. His not inglorious age. A horse grown old
  4. Slow kindling unto love in vain prolongs
  5. The fruitless task, and, to the encounter come,
  6. As fire in stubble blusters without strength,
  7. He rages idly. Therefore mark thou first
  8. Their age and mettle, other points anon,
  9. As breed and lineage, or what pain was theirs
  10. To lose the race, what pride the palm to win.
  11. Seest how the chariots in mad rivalry
  12. Poured from the barrier grip the course and go,
  13. When youthful hope is highest, and every heart
  14. Drained with each wild pulsation? How they ply
  15. The circling lash, and reaching forward let
  16. The reins hang free! Swift spins the glowing wheel;
  17. And now they stoop, and now erect in air
  18. Seem borne through space and towering to the sky:
  19. No stop, no stay; the dun sand whirls aloft;
  20. They reek with foam-flakes and pursuing breath;
  21. So sweet is fame, so prized the victor's palm.
  22. 'Twas Ericthonius first took heart to yoke
  23. Four horses to his car, and rode above
  24. The whirling wheels to victory: but the ring
  25. And bridle-reins, mounted on horses' backs,
  26. The Pelethronian Lapithae bequeathed,
  27. And taught the knight in arms to spurn the ground,
  28. And arch the upgathered footsteps of his pride.
  29. Each task alike is arduous, and for each
  30. A horse young, fiery, swift of foot, they seek;
  31. How oft so-e'er yon rival may have chased
  32. The flying foe, or boast his native plain
  33. Epirus, or Mycenae's stubborn hold,
  34. And trace his lineage back to Neptune's birth.