Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. But if one's whole stock fail him at a stroke,
  2. Nor hath he whence to breed the race anew,
  3. 'Tis time the wondrous secret to disclose
  4. Taught by the swain of Arcady, even how
  5. The blood of slaughtered bullocks oft has borne
  6. Bees from corruption. I will trace me back
  7. To its prime source the story's tangled thread,
  8. And thence unravel. For where thy happy folk,
  9. Canopus, city of Pellaean fame,
  10. Dwell by the Nile's lagoon-like overflow,
  11. And high o'er furrows they have called their own
  12. Skim in their painted wherries; where, hard by,
  13. The quivered Persian presses, and that flood
  14. Which from the swart-skinned Aethiop bears him down,
  15. Swift-parted into sevenfold branching mouths
  16. With black mud fattens and makes Aegypt green,
  17. That whole domain its welfare's hope secure
  18. Rests on this art alone. And first is chosen
  19. A strait recess, cramped closer to this end,
  20. Which next with narrow roof of tiles atop
  21. 'Twixt prisoning walls they pinch, and add hereto
  22. From the four winds four slanting window-slits.
  23. Then seek they from the herd a steer, whose horns
  24. With two years' growth are curling, and stop fast,
  25. Plunge madly as he may, the panting mouth
  26. And nostrils twain, and done with blows to death,
  27. Batter his flesh to pulp i' the hide yet whole,
  28. And shut the doors, and leave him there to lie.
  29. But 'neath his ribs they scatter broken boughs,
  30. With thyme and fresh-pulled cassias: this is done
  31. When first the west winds bid the waters flow,
  32. Ere flush the meadows with new tints, and ere
  33. The twittering swallow buildeth from the beams.
  34. Meanwhile the juice within his softened bones
  35. Heats and ferments, and things of wondrous birth,
  36. Footless at first, anon with feet and wings,
  37. Swarm there and buzz, a marvel to behold;
  38. And more and more the fleeting breeze they take,
  39. Till, like a shower that pours from summer-clouds,
  40. Forth burst they, or like shafts from quivering string
  41. When Parthia's flying hosts provoke the fray.
  1. Say what was he, what God, that fashioned forth
  2. This art for us, O Muses? of man's skill
  3. Whence came the new adventure? From thy vale,
  4. Peneian Tempe, turning, bee-bereft,
  5. So runs the tale, by famine and disease,
  6. Mournful the shepherd Aristaeus stood
  7. Fast by the haunted river-head, and thus
  8. With many a plaint to her that bare him cried:
  9. “Mother, Cyrene, mother, who hast thy home
  10. Beneath this whirling flood, if he thou sayest,
  11. Apollo, lord of Thymbra, be my sire,
  12. Sprung from the Gods' high line, why barest thou me
  13. With fortune's ban for birthright? Where is now
  14. Thy love to me-ward banished from thy breast?
  15. O! wherefore didst thou bid me hope for heaven?
  16. Lo! even the crown of this poor mortal life,
  17. Which all my skilful care by field and fold,
  18. No art neglected, scarce had fashioned forth,
  19. Even this falls from me, yet thou call'st me son.
  20. Nay, then, arise! With thine own hands pluck up
  21. My fruit-plantations: on the homestead fling
  22. Pitiless fire; make havoc of my crops;
  23. Burn the young plants, and wield the stubborn axe
  24. Against my vines, if there hath taken the
  25. Such loathing of my greatness.”