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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
1.1.1
What makes the cornfield smile; beneath what star
1.1.2
Maecenas, it is meet to turn the sod
1.1.3
Or marry elm with vine; how tend the steer;
1.1.4
What pains for cattle-keeping, or what proof
1.1.5
Of patient trial serves for thrifty bees;—
1.1.6
Such are my themes. O universal lights
1.1.7
Most glorious! ye that lead the gliding year
1.1.8
Along the sky, Liber and Ceres mild,
1.1.9
If by your bounty holpen earth once changed
1.1.10
Chaonian acorn for the plump wheat-ear,
1.1.11
And mingled with the grape, your new-found gift,
1.1.12
The draughts of Achelous; and ye Fauns
1.1.13
To rustics ever kind, come foot it, Fauns
1.1.14
And Dryad-maids together; your gifts I sing.
1.1.15
And thou, for whose delight the war-horse first
1.1.16
Sprang from earth's womb at thy great trident's stroke,
1.1.17
Neptune; and haunter of the groves, for whom
1.1.18
Three hundred snow-white heifers browse the brakes,
1.1.19
The fertile brakes of Ceos; and clothed in power,
1.1.20
Thy native forest and Lycean lawns,
1.1.21
Pan, shepherd-god, forsaking, as the love
1.1.22
Of thine own Maenalus constrains thee, hear
1.1.23
And help, O lord of Tegea! And thou, too,
1.1.24
Minerva, from whose hand the olive sprung;
1.1.25
And boy-discoverer of the curved plough;
1.1.26
And, bearing a young cypress root-uptorn,
1.1.27
Silvanus, and Gods all and Goddesses,
1.1.28
Who make the fields your care, both ye who nurse
1.1.29
The tender unsown increase, and from heaven
1.1.30
Shed on man's sowing the riches of your rain:
1.1.31
And thou, even thou, of whom we know not yet
1.1.32
What mansion of the skies shall hold thee soon,
1.1.33
Whether to watch o'er cities be thy will,
1.1.34
Great Caesar, and to take the earth in charge,
1.1.35
That so the mighty world may welcome thee
1.1.36
Lord of her increase, master of her times,
1.1.37
Binding thy mother's myrtle round thy brow,
1.1.38
Or as the boundless ocean's God thou come,
1.1.39
Sole dread of seamen, till far Thule bow
1.1.40
Before thee, and Tethys win thee to her son
1.1.41
With all her waves for dower; or as a star
1.1.42
Lend thy fresh beams our lagging months to cheer,
1.1.43
Where 'twixt the Maid and those pursuing Claws
1.1.44
A space is opening; see! red Scorpio's self
1.1.45
His arms draws in, yea, and hath left thee more
1.1.46
Than thy full meed of heaven: be what thou wilt—
1.1.47
For neither Tartarus hopes to call thee king,
1.1.48
Nor may so dire a lust of sovereignty
1.1.49
E'er light upon thee, howso Greece admire
1.1.50
Elysium's fields, and Proserpine not heed
1.1.51
Her mother's voice entreating to return—
1.1.52
Vouchsafe a prosperous voyage, and smile on this
1.1.53
My bold endeavour, and pitying, even as I,
1.1.54
These poor way-wildered swains, at once begin,
1.1.55
Grow timely used unto the voice of prayer.
1.43.56
In early spring-tide, when the icy drip
1.43.57
Melts from the mountains hoar, and Zephyr's breath
1.43.58
Unbinds the crumbling clod, even then 'tis time;
1.43.59
Press deep your plough behind the groaning ox,
1.43.60
And teach the furrow-burnished share to shine.
1.43.61
That land the craving farmer's prayer fulfils,
1.43.62
Which twice the sunshine, twice the frost has felt;
1.43.63
Ay, that's the land whose boundless harvest-crops
1.43.64
Burst, see! the barns. But ere our metal cleave
1.43.65
An unknown surface, heed we to forelearn
1.43.66
The winds and varying temper of the sky,
1.43.67
The lineal tilth and habits of the spot,
1.43.68
What every region yields, and what denies.
1.43.69
Here blithelier springs the corn, and here the grape,
1.43.70
There earth is green with tender growth of trees
1.43.71
And grass unbidden. See how from Tmolus comes
1.43.72
The saffron's fragrance, ivory from Ind,
1.43.73
From Saba's weakling sons their frankincense,
1.43.74
Iron from the naked Chalybs, castor rank
1.43.75
From Pontus, from Epirus the prize-palms
1.43.76
O' the mares of Elis. Such the eternal bond
1.43.77
And such the laws by Nature's hand imposed
1.43.78
On clime and clime, e'er since the primal dawn
1.43.79
When old Deucalion on the unpeopled earth
1.43.80
Cast stones, whence men, a flinty race, were reared.
1.43.81
Up then! if fat the soil, let sturdy bulls
1.43.82
Upturn it from the year's first opening months,
1.43.83
And let the clods lie bare till baked to dust
1.43.84
By the ripe suns of summer; but if the earth
1.43.85
Less fruitful just ere Arcturus rise
1.43.86
With shallower trench uptilt it—'twill suffice;
1.43.87
There, lest weeds choke the crop's luxuriance, here,
1.43.88
Lest the scant moisture fail the barren sand.
1.71.89
Then thou shalt suffer in alternate years
1.71.90
The new-reaped fields to rest, and on the plain
1.71.91
A crust of sloth to harden; or, when stars
1.71.92
Are changed in heaven, there sow the golden grain
1.71.93
Where erst, luxuriant with its quivering pod,
1.71.94
Pulse, or the slender vetch-crop, thou hast cleared,
1.71.95
And lupin sour, whose brittle stalks arise,
1.71.96
A hurtling forest. For the plain is parched
1.71.97
By flax-crop, parched by oats, by poppies parched
1.71.98
In Lethe-slumber drenched. Nathless by change
1.71.99
The travailing earth is lightened, but stint not
1.71.100
With refuse rich to soak the thirsty soil,
1.71.101
And shower foul ashes o'er the exhausted fields.
1.71.102
Thus by rotation like repose is gained,
1.71.103
Nor earth meanwhile uneared and thankless left.
1.71.104
Oft, too, 'twill boot to fire the naked fields,
1.71.105
And the light stubble burn with crackling flames;
1.71.106
Whether that earth therefrom some hidden strength
1.71.107
And fattening food derives, or that the fire
1.71.108
Bakes every blemish out, and sweats away
1.71.109
Each useless humour, or that the heat unlocks
1.71.110
New passages and secret pores, whereby
1.71.111
Their life-juice to the tender blades may win;
1.71.112
Or that it hardens more and helps to bind
1.71.113
The gaping veins, lest penetrating showers,
1.71.114
Or fierce sun's ravening might, or searching blast
1.71.115
Of the keen north should sear them. Well, I wot,
1.71.116
He serves the fields who with his harrow breaks
1.71.117
The sluggish clods, and hurdles osier-twined
1.71.118
Hales o'er them; from the far Olympian height
1.71.119
Him golden Ceres not in vain regards;
1.71.120
And he, who having ploughed the fallow plain
1.71.121
And heaved its furrowy ridges, turns once more
1.71.122
Cross-wise his shattering share, with stroke on stroke
1.71.123
The earth assails, and makes the field his thrall.
1.71.124
Pray for wet summers and for winters fine,
1.71.125
Ye husbandmen; in winter's dust the crops
1.71.126
Exceedingly rejoice, the field hath joy;
1.71.127
No tilth makes Mysia lift her head so high,
1.71.128
Nor Gargarus his own harvests so admire.
1.71.129
Why tell of him, who, having launched his seed,
1.71.130
Sets on for close encounter, and rakes smooth
1.71.131
The dry dust hillocks, then on the tender corn
1.71.132
Lets in the flood, whose waters follow fain;
1.71.133
And when the parched field quivers, and all the blades
1.71.134
Are dying, from the brow of its hill-bed,
1.71.135
See! see! he lures the runnel; down it falls,
1.71.136
Waking hoarse murmurs o'er the polished stones,
1.71.137
And with its bubblings slakes the thirsty fields?
1.71.138
Or why of him, who lest the heavy ears
1.71.139
O'erweigh the stalk, while yet in tender blade
1.71.140
Feeds down the crop's luxuriance, when its growth
1.71.141
First tops the furrows? Why of him who drains
1.71.142
The marsh-land's gathered ooze through soaking sand,
1.71.143
Chiefly what time in treacherous moons a stream
1.71.144
Goes out in spate, and with its coat of slime
1.71.145
Holds all the country, whence the hollow dykes
1.71.146
Sweat steaming vapour?
1.118.147
But no whit the more
1.118.148
For all expedients tried and travail borne
1.118.149
By man and beast in turning oft the soil,
1.118.150
Do greedy goose and Strymon-haunting cranes
1.118.151
And succory's bitter fibres cease to harm,
1.118.152
Or shade not injure. The great Sire himself
1.118.153
No easy road to husbandry assigned,
1.118.154
And first was he by human skill to rouse
1.118.155
The slumbering glebe, whetting the minds of men
1.118.156
With care on care, nor suffering realm of his
1.118.157
In drowsy sloth to stagnate. Before Jove
1.118.158
Fields knew no taming hand of husbandmen;
1.118.159
To mark the plain or mete with boundary-line—
1.118.160
Even this was impious; for the common stock
1.118.161
They gathered, and the earth of her own will
1.118.162
All things more freely, no man bidding, bore.
1.118.163
He to black serpents gave their venom-bane,
1.118.164
And bade the wolf go prowl, and ocean toss;
1.118.165
Shooed from the leaves their honey, put fire away,
1.118.166
And curbed the random rivers running wine,
1.118.167
That use by gradual dint of thought on thought
1.118.168
Might forge the various arts, with furrow's help
1.118.169
The corn-blade win, and strike out hidden fire
1.118.170
From the flint's heart. Then first the streams were ware
1.118.171
Of hollowed alder-hulls: the sailor then
1.118.172
Their names and numbers gave to star and star,
1.118.173
Pleiads and Hyads, and Lycaon's child
1.118.174
Bright Arctos; how with nooses then was found
1.118.175
To catch wild beasts, and cozen them with lime,
1.118.176
And hem with hounds the mighty forest-glades.
1.118.177
Soon one with hand-net scourges the broad stream,
1.118.178
Probing its depths, one drags his dripping toils
1.118.179
Along the main; then iron's unbending might,
1.118.180
And shrieking saw-blade,—for the men of old
1.118.181
With wedges wont to cleave the splintering log;—
1.118.182
Then divers arts arose; toil conquered all,
1.118.183
Remorseless toil, and poverty's shrewd push
1.118.184
In times of hardship. Ceres was the first
1.118.185
Set mortals on with tools to turn the sod,
1.118.186
When now the awful groves 'gan fail to bear
1.118.187
Acorns and arbutes, and her wonted food
1.118.188
Dodona gave no more. Soon, too, the corn
1.118.189
Gat sorrow's increase, that an evil blight
1.118.190
Ate up the stalks, and thistle reared his spines
1.118.191
An idler in the fields; the crops die down;
1.118.192
Upsprings instead a shaggy growth of burrs
1.118.193
And caltrops; and amid the corn-fields trim
1.118.194
Unfruitful darnel and wild oats have sway.
1.118.195
Wherefore, unless thou shalt with ceaseless rake
1.118.196
The weeds pursue, with shouting scare the birds,
1.118.197
Prune with thy hook the dark field's matted shade,
1.118.198
Pray down the showers, all vainly thou shalt eye,
1.118.199
Alack! thy neighbour's heaped-up harvest-mow,
1.118.200
And in the greenwood from a shaken oak
1.118.201
Seek solace for thine hunger.
1.160.202
Now to tell
1.160.203
The sturdy rustics' weapons, what they are,
1.160.204
Without which, neither can be sown nor reared
1.160.205
The fruits of harvest; first the bent plough's share
1.160.206
And heavy timber, and slow-lumbering wains
1.160.207
Of the Eleusinian mother, threshing-sleighs
1.160.208
And drags, and harrows with their crushing weight;
1.160.209
Then the cheap wicker-ware of Celeus old,
1.160.210
Hurdles of arbute, and thy mystic fan,
1.160.211
Iacchus; which, full tale, long ere the time
1.160.212
Thou must with heed lay by, if thee await
1.160.213
Not all unearned the country's crown divine.
1.160.214
While yet within the woods, the elm is tamed
1.160.215
And bowed with mighty force to form the stock,
1.160.216
And take the plough's curved shape, then nigh the root
1.160.217
A pole eight feet projecting, earth-boards twain,
1.160.218
And share-beam with its double back they fix.
1.160.219
For yoke is early hewn a linden light,
1.160.220
And a tall beech for handle, from behind
1.160.221
To turn the car at lowest: then o'er the hearth
1.160.222
The wood they hang till the smoke knows it well.
1.176.223
Many the precepts of the men of old
1.176.224
I can recount thee, so thou start not back,
1.176.225
And such slight cares to learn not weary thee.
1.176.226
And this among the first: thy threshing-floor
1.176.227
With ponderous roller must be levelled smooth,
1.176.228
And wrought by hand, and fixed with binding chalk,
1.176.229
Lest weeds arise, or dust a passage win
1.176.230
Splitting the surface, then a thousand plagues
1.176.231
Make sport of it: oft builds the tiny mouse
1.176.232
Her home, and plants her granary, underground,
1.176.233
Or burrow for their bed the purblind moles,
1.176.234
Or toad is found in hollows, and all the swarm
1.176.235
Of earth's unsightly creatures; or a huge
1.176.236
Corn-heap the weevil plunders, and the ant,
1.176.237
Fearful of coming age and penury.
1.176.238
Mark too, what time the walnut in the woods
1.176.239
With ample bloom shall clothe her, and bow down
1.176.240
Her odorous branches, if the fruit prevail,
1.176.241
Like store of grain will follow, and there shall come
1.176.242
A mighty winnowing-time with mighty heat;
1.176.243
But if the shade with wealth of leaves abound,
1.176.244
Vainly your threshing-floor will bruise the stalks
1.176.245
Rich but in chaff. Many myself have seen
1.176.246
Steep, as they sow, their pulse-seeds, drenching them
1.176.247
With nitre and black oil-lees, that the fruit
1.176.248
Might swell within the treacherous pods, and they
1.176.249
Make speed to boil at howso small a fire.
1.176.250
Yet, culled with caution, proved with patient toil,
1.176.251
These have I seen degenerate, did not man
1.176.252
Put forth his hand with power, and year by year
1.176.253
Choose out the largest. So, by fate impelled,
1.176.254
Speed all things to the worse, and backward borne
1.176.255
Glide from us; even as who with struggling oars
1.176.256
Up stream scarce pulls a shallop, if he chance
1.176.257
His arms to slacken, lo! with headlong force
1.176.258
The current sweeps him down the hurrying tide.
1.204.259
Us too behoves Arcturus' sign observe,
1.204.260
And the Kids' seasons and the shining Snake,
1.204.261
No less than those who o'er the windy main
1.204.262
Borne homeward tempt the Pontic, and the jaws
1.204.263
Of oyster-rife Abydos. When the Scales
1.204.264
Now poising fair the hours of sleep and day
1.204.265
Give half the world to sunshine, half to shade,
1.204.266
Then urge your bulls, my masters; sow the plain
1.204.267
Even to the verge of tameless winter's showers
1.204.268
With barley: then, too, time it is to hide
1.204.269
Your flax in earth, and poppy, Ceres' joy,
1.204.270
Aye, more than time to bend above the plough,
1.204.271
While earth, yet dry, forbids not, and the clouds
1.204.272
Are buoyant. With the spring comes bean-sowing;
1.204.273
Thee, too, Lucerne, the crumbling furrows then
1.204.274
Receive, and millet's annual care returns,
1.204.275
What time the white bull with his gilded horns
1.204.276
Opens the year, before whose threatening front,
1.204.277
Routed the dog-star sinks. But if it be
1.204.278
For wheaten harvest and the hardy spelt,
1.204.279
Thou tax the soil, to corn-ears wholly given,
1.204.280
Let Atlas' daughters hide them in the dawn,
1.204.281
The Cretan star, a crown of fire, depart,
1.204.282
Or e'er the furrow's claim of seed thou quit,
1.204.283
Or haste thee to entrust the whole year's hope
1.204.284
To earth that would not. Many have begun
1.204.285
Ere Maia's star be setting; these, I trow,
1.204.286
Their looked-for harvest fools with empty ears.
1.204.287
But if the vetch and common kidney-bean
1.204.288
Thou'rt fain to sow, nor scorn to make thy care
1.204.289
Pelusiac lentil, no uncertain sign
1.204.290
Bootes' fall will send thee; then begin,
1.204.291
Pursue thy sowing till half the frosts be done.
1.231.292
Therefore it is the golden sun, his course
1.231.293
Into fixed parts dividing, rules his way
1.231.294
Through the twelve constellations of the world.
1.231.295
Five zones the heavens contain; whereof is one
1.231.296
Aye red with flashing sunlight, fervent aye
1.231.297
From fire; on either side to left and right
1.231.298
Are traced the utmost twain, stiff with blue ice,
1.231.299
And black with scowling storm-clouds, and betwixt
1.231.300
These and the midmost, other twain there lie,
1.231.301
By the Gods' grace to heart-sick mortals given,
1.231.302
And a path cleft between them, where might wheel
1.231.303
On sloping plane the system of the Signs.
1.231.304
And as toward Scythia and Rhipaean heights
1.231.305
The world mounts upward, likewise sinks it down
1.231.306
Toward Libya and the south, this pole of ours
1.231.307
Still towering high, that other, 'neath their feet,
1.231.308
By dark Styx frowned on, and the abysmal shades.
1.231.309
Here glides the huge Snake forth with sinuous coils
1.231.310
'Twixt the two Bears and round them river-wise—
1.231.311
The Bears that fear 'neath Ocean's brim to dip.
1.231.312
There either, say they, reigns the eternal hush
1.231.313
Of night that knows no seasons, her black pall
1.231.314
Thick-mantling fold on fold; or thitherward
1.231.315
From us returning Dawn brings back the day;
1.231.316
And when the first breath of his panting steeds
1.231.317
On us the Orient flings, that hour with them
1.231.318
Red Vesper 'gins to trim his 'lated fires.
1.231.319
Hence under doubtful skies forebode we can
1.231.320
The coming tempests, hence both harvest-day
1.231.321
And seed-time, when to smite the treacherous main
1.231.322
With driving oars, when launch the fair-rigged fleet,
1.231.323
Or in ripe hour to fell the forest-pine.
1.257.324
Hence, too, not idly do we watch the stars—
1.257.325
Their rising and their setting-and the year,
1.257.326
Four varying seasons to one law conformed.
1.257.327
If chilly showers e'er shut the farmer's door,
1.257.328
Much that had soon with sunshine cried for haste,
1.257.329
He may forestall; the ploughman batters keen
1.257.330
His blunted share's hard tooth, scoops from a tree
1.257.331
His troughs, or on the cattle stamps a brand,
1.257.332
Or numbers on the corn-heaps; some make sharp
1.257.333
The stakes and two-pronged forks, and willow-bands
1.257.334
Amerian for the bending vine prepare.
1.257.335
Now let the pliant basket plaited be
1.257.336
Of bramble-twigs; now set your corn to parch
1.257.337
Before the fire; now bruise it with the stone.
1.257.338
Nay even on holy days some tasks to ply
1.257.339
Is right and lawful: this no ban forbids,
1.257.340
To turn the runnel's course, fence corn-fields in,
1.257.341
Make springes for the birds, burn up the briars,
1.257.342
And plunge in wholesome stream the bleating flock.
1.257.343
Oft too with oil or apples plenty-cheap
1.257.344
The creeping ass's ribs his driver packs,
1.257.345
And home from town returning brings instead
1.257.346
A dented mill-stone or black lump of pitch.
1.276.347
The moon herself in various rank assigns
1.276.348
The days for labour lucky: fly the fifth;
1.276.349
Then sprang pale Orcus and the Eumenides;
1.276.350
Earth then in awful labour brought to light
1.276.351
Coeus, Iapetus, and Typhoeus fell,
1.276.352
And those sworn brethren banded to break down
1.276.353
The gates of heaven; thrice, sooth to say, they strove
1.276.354
Ossa on Pelion's top to heave and heap,
1.276.355
Aye, and on Ossa to up-roll amain
1.276.356
Leafy Olympus; thrice with thunderbolt
1.276.357
Their mountain-stair the Sire asunder smote.
1.276.358
Seventh after tenth is lucky both to set
1.276.359
The vine in earth, and take and tame the steer,
1.276.360
And fix the leashes to the warp; the ninth
1.276.361
To runagates is kinder, cross to thieves.
1.287.362
Many the tasks that lightlier lend themselves
1.287.363
In chilly night, or when the sun is young,
1.287.364
And Dawn bedews the world. By night 'tis best
1.287.365
To reap light stubble, and parched fields by night;
1.287.366
For nights the suppling moisture never fails.
1.287.367
And one will sit the long late watches out
1.287.368
By winter fire-light, shaping with keen blade
1.287.369
The torches to a point; his wife the while,
1.287.370
Her tedious labour soothing with a song,
1.287.371
Speeds the shrill comb along the warp, or else
1.287.372
With Vulcan's aid boils the sweet must-juice down,
1.287.373
And skims with leaves the quivering cauldron's wave.
1.287.374
But ruddy Ceres in mid heat is mown,
1.287.375
And in mid heat the parched ears are bruised
1.287.376
Upon the floor; to plough strip, strip to sow;
1.287.377
Winter's the lazy time for husbandmen.
1.287.378
In the cold season farmers wont to taste
1.287.379
The increase of their toil, and yield themselves
1.287.380
To mutual interchange of festal cheer.
1.287.381
Boon winter bids them, and unbinds their cares,
1.287.382
As laden keels, when now the port they touch,
1.287.383
And happy sailors crown the sterns with flowers.
1.287.384
Nathless then also time it is to strip
1.287.385
Acorns from oaks, and berries from the bay,
1.287.386
Olives, and bleeding myrtles, then to set
1.287.387
Snares for the crane, and meshes for the stag,
1.287.388
And hunt the long-eared hares, then pierce the doe
1.287.389
With whirl of hempen-thonged Balearic sling,
1.287.390
While snow lies deep, and streams are drifting ice.
1.311.391
What need to tell of autumn's storms and stars,
1.311.392
And wherefore men must watch, when now the day
1.311.393
Grows shorter, and more soft the summer's heat?
1.311.394
When Spring the rain-bringer comes rushing down,
1.311.395
Or when the beards of harvest on the plain
1.311.396
Bristle already, and the milky corn
1.311.397
On its green stalk is swelling? Many a time,
1.311.398
When now the farmer to his yellow fields
1.311.399
The reaping-hind came bringing, even in act
1.311.400
To lop the brittle barley stems, have I
1.311.401
Seen all the windy legions clash in war
1.311.402
Together, as to rend up far and wide
1.311.403
The heavy corn-crop from its lowest roots,
1.311.404
And toss it skyward: so might winter's flaw,
1.311.405
Dark-eddying, whirl light stalks and flying straws.
1.311.406
Oft too comes looming vast along the sky
1.311.407
A march of waters; mustering from above,
1.311.408
The clouds roll up the tempest, heaped and grim
1.311.409
With angry showers: down falls the height of heaven,
1.311.410
And with a great rain floods the smiling crops,
1.311.411
The oxen's labour: now the dikes fill fast,
1.311.412
And the void river-beds swell thunderously,
1.311.413
And all the panting firths of Ocean boil.
1.311.414
The Sire himself in midnight of the clouds
1.311.415
Wields with red hand the levin; through all her bulk
1.311.416
Earth at the hurly quakes; the beasts are fled,
1.311.417
And mortal hearts of every kindred sunk
1.311.418
In cowering terror; he with flaming brand
1.311.419
Athos, or Rhodope, or Ceraunian crags
1.311.420
Precipitates: then doubly raves the South
1.311.421
With shower on blinding shower, and woods and coasts
1.311.422
Wail fitfully beneath the mighty blast.
1.311.423
This fearing, mark the months and Signs of heaven,
1.311.424
Whither retires him Saturn's icy star,
1.311.425
And through what heavenly cycles wandereth
1.311.426
The glowing orb Cyllenian. Before all
1.311.427
Worship the Gods, and to great Ceres pay
1.311.428
Her yearly dues upon the happy sward
1.311.429
With sacrifice, anigh the utmost end
1.311.430
Of winter, and when Spring begins to smile.
1.311.431
Then lambs are fat, and wines are mellowest then;
1.311.432
Then sleep is sweet, and dark the shadows fall
1.311.433
Upon the mountains. Let your rustic youth
1.311.434
To Ceres do obeisance, one and all;
1.311.435
And for her pleasure thou mix honeycombs
1.311.436
With milk and the ripe wine-god; thrice for luck
1.311.437
Around the young corn let the victim go,
1.311.438
And all the choir, a joyful company,
1.311.439
Attend it, and with shouts bid Ceres come
1.311.440
To be their house-mate; and let no man dare
1.311.441
Put sickle to the ripened ears until,
1.311.442
With woven oak his temples chapleted,
1.311.443
He foot the rugged dance and chant the lay.
1.351.444
Aye, and that these things we might win to know
1.351.445
By certain tokens, heats, and showers, and winds
1.351.446
That bring the frost, the Sire of all himself
1.351.447
Ordained what warnings in her monthly round
1.351.448
The moon should give, what bodes the south wind's fall,
1.351.449
What oft-repeated sights the herdsman seeing
1.351.450
Should keep his cattle closer to their stalls.
1.351.451
No sooner are the winds at point to rise,
1.351.452
Than either Ocean's firths begin to toss
1.351.453
And swell, and a dry crackling sound is heard
1.351.454
Upon the heights, or one loud ferment booms
1.351.455
The beach afar, and through the forest goes
1.351.456
A murmur multitudinous. By this
1.351.457
Scarce can the billow spare the curved keels,
1.351.458
When swift the sea-gulls from the middle main
1.351.459
Come winging, and their shrieks are shoreward borne,
1.351.460
When ocean-loving cormorants on dry land
1.351.461
Besport them, and the hern, her marshy haunts
1.351.462
Forsaking, mounts above the soaring cloud.
1.351.463
Oft, too, when wind is toward, the stars thou'lt see
1.351.464
From heaven shoot headlong, and through murky night
1.351.465
Long trails of fire white-glistening in their wake,
1.351.466
Or light chaff flit in air with fallen leaves,
1.351.467
Or feathers on the wave-top float and play.
1.351.468
But when from regions of the furious North
1.351.469
It lightens, and when thunder fills the halls
1.351.470
Of Eurus and of Zephyr, all the fields
1.351.471
With brimming dikes are flooded, and at sea
1.351.472
No mariner but furls his dripping sails.
1.351.473
Never at unawares did shower annoy:
1.351.474
Or, as it rises, the high-soaring cranes
1.351.475
Flee to the vales before it, with face
1.351.476
Upturned to heaven, the heifer snuffs the gale
1.351.477
Through gaping nostrils, or about the meres
1.351.478
Shrill-twittering flits the swallow, and the frogs
1.351.479
Crouch in the mud and chant their dirge of old.
1.351.480
Oft, too, the ant from out her inmost cells,
1.351.481
Fretting the narrow path, her eggs conveys;
1.351.482
Or the huge bow sucks moisture; or a host
1.351.483
Of rooks from food returning in long line
1.351.484
Clamour with jostling wings. Now mayst thou see
1.351.485
The various ocean-fowl and those that pry
1.351.486
Round Asian meads within thy fresher-pools,
1.351.487
Cayster, as in eager rivalry,
1.351.488
About their shoulders dash the plenteous spray,
1.351.489
Now duck their head beneath the wave, now run
1.351.490
Into the billows, for sheer idle joy
1.351.491
Of their mad bathing-revel. Then the crow
1.351.492
With full voice, good-for-naught, inviting rain,
1.351.493
Stalks on the dry sand mateless and alone.
1.351.494
Nor e'en the maids, that card their nightly task,
1.351.495
Know not the storm-sign, when in blazing crock
1.351.496
They see the lamp-oil sputtering with a growth
1.351.497
Of mouldy snuff-clots.
1.393.498
So too, after rain,
1.393.499
Sunshine and open skies thou mayst forecast,
1.393.500
And learn by tokens sure, for then nor dimmed
1.393.501
Appear the stars' keen edges, nor the moon
1.393.502
As borrowing of her brother's beams to rise,
1.393.503
Nor fleecy films to float along the sky.
1.393.504
Not to the sun's warmth then upon the shore
1.393.505
Do halcyons dear to Thetis ope their wings,
1.393.506
Nor filthy swine take thought to toss on high
1.393.507
With scattering snout the straw-wisps. But the clouds
1.393.508
Seek more the vales, and rest upon the plain,
1.393.509
And from the roof-top the night-owl for naught
1.393.510
Watching the sunset plies her 'lated song.
1.393.511
Distinct in clearest air is Nisus seen
1.393.512
Towering, and Scylla for the purple lock
1.393.513
Pays dear; for whereso, as she flies, her wings
1.393.514
The light air winnow, lo! fierce, implacable,
1.393.515
Nisus with mighty whirr through heaven pursues;
1.393.516
Where Nisus heavenward soareth, there her wings
1.393.517
Clutch as she flies, the light air winnowing still.
1.393.518
Soft then the voice of rooks from indrawn throat
1.393.519
Thrice, four times, o'er repeated, and full oft
1.393.520
On their high cradles, by some hidden joy
1.393.521
Gladdened beyond their wont, in bustling throngs
1.393.522
Among the leaves they riot; so sweet it is,
1.393.523
When showers are spent, their own loved nests again
1.393.524
And tender brood to visit. Not, I deem,
1.393.525
That heaven some native wit to these assigned,
1.393.526
Or fate a larger prescience, but that when
1.393.527
The storm and shifting moisture of the air
1.393.528
Have changed their courses, and the sky-god now,
1.393.529
Wet with the south-wind, thickens what was rare,
1.393.530
And what was gross releases, then, too, change
1.393.531
Their spirits' fleeting phases, and their breasts
1.393.532
Feel other motions now, than when the wind
1.393.533
Was driving up the cloud-rack. Hence proceeds
1.393.534
That blending of the feathered choirs afield,
1.393.535
The cattle's exultation, and the rooks'
1.393.536
Deep-throated triumph.
1.424.537
But if the headlong sun
1.424.538
And moons in order following thou regard,
1.424.539
Ne'er will to-morrow's hour deceive thee, ne'er
1.424.540
Wilt thou be caught by guile of cloudless night.
1.424.541
When first the moon recalls her rallying fires,
1.424.542
If dark the air clipped by her crescent dim,
1.424.543
For folks afield and on the open sea
1.424.544
A mighty rain is brewing; but if her face
1.424.545
With maiden blush she mantle, 'twill be wind,
1.424.546
For wind turns Phoebe still to ruddier gold.
1.424.547
But if at her fourth rising, for 'tis that
1.424.548
Gives surest counsel, clear she ride thro' heaven
1.424.549
With horns unblunted, then shall that whole day,
1.424.550
And to the month's end those that spring from it,
1.424.551
Rainless and windless be, while safe ashore
1.424.552
Shall sailors pay their vows to Panope,
1.424.553
Glaucus, and Melicertes, Ino's child.
1.424.554
The sun too, both at rising, and when soon
1.424.555
He dives beneath the waves, shall yield thee signs;
1.424.556
For signs, none trustier, travel with the sun,
1.424.557
Both those which in their course with dawn he brings,
1.424.558
And those at star-rise. When his springing orb
1.424.559
With spots he pranketh, muffled in a cloud,
1.424.560
And shrinks mid-circle, then of showers beware;
1.424.561
For then the South comes driving from the deep,
1.424.562
To trees and crops and cattle bringing bane.
1.424.563
Or when at day-break through dark clouds his rays
1.424.564
Burst and are scattered, or when rising pale
1.424.565
Aurora quits Tithonus' saffron bed,
1.424.566
But sorry shelter then, alack I will yield
1.424.567
Vine-leaf to ripening grapes; so thick a hail
1.424.568
In spiky showers spins rattling on the roof.
1.424.569
And this yet more 'twill boot thee bear in mind,
1.424.570
When now, his course upon Olympus run,
1.424.571
He draws to his decline: for oft we see
1.424.572
Upon the sun's own face strange colours stray;
1.424.573
Dark tells of rain, of east winds fiery-red;
1.424.574
If spots with ruddy fire begin to mix,
1.424.575
Then all the heavens convulsed in wrath thou'lt see—
1.424.576
Storm-clouds and wind together. Me that night
1.424.577
Let no man bid fare forth upon the deep,
1.424.578
Nor rend the rope from shore. But if, when both
1.424.579
He brings again and hides the day's return,
1.424.580
Clear-orbed he shineth,idly wilt thou dread
1.424.581
The storm-clouds, and beneath the lustral North
1.424.582
See the woods waving. What late eve in fine
1.424.583
Bears in her bosom, whence the wind that brings
1.424.584
Fair-weather-clouds, or what the rain South
1.424.585
Is meditating, tokens of all these
1.424.586
The sun will give thee. Who dare charge the sun
1.424.587
With leasing? He it is who warneth oft
1.424.588
Of hidden broils at hand and treachery,
1.424.589
And secret swelling of the waves of war.
1.466.590
He too it was, when Caesar's light was quenched,
1.466.591
For Rome had pity, when his bright head he veiled
1.466.592
In iron-hued darkness, till a godless age
1.466.593
Trembled for night eternal; at that time
1.466.594
Howbeit earth also, and the ocean-plains,
1.466.595
And dogs obscene, and birds of evil bode
1.466.596
Gave tokens. Yea, how often have we seen
1.466.597
Etna, her furnace-walls asunder riven,
1.466.598
In billowy floods boil o'er the Cyclops' fields,
1.466.599
And roll down globes of fire and molten rocks!
1.466.600
A clash of arms through all the heaven was heard
1.466.601
By Germany; strange heavings shook the Alps.
1.466.602
Yea, and by many through the breathless groves
1.466.603
A voice was heard with power, and wondrous-pale
1.466.604
Phantoms were seen upon the dusk of night,
1.466.605
And cattle spake, portentous! streams stand still,
1.466.606
And the earth yawns asunder, ivory weeps
1.466.607
For sorrow in the shrines, and bronzes sweat.
1.466.608
Up-twirling forests with his eddying tide,
1.466.609
Madly he bears them down, that lord of floods,
1.466.610
Eridanus, till through all the plain are swept
1.466.611
Beasts and their stalls together. At that time
1.466.612
In gloomy entrails ceased not to appear
1.466.613
Dark-threatening fibres, springs to trickle blood,
1.466.614
And high-built cities night-long to resound
1.466.615
With the wolves' howling. Never more than then
1.466.616
From skies all cloudless fell the thunderbolts,
1.466.617
Nor blazed so oft the comet's fire of bale.
1.466.618
Therefore a second time Philippi saw
1.466.619
The Roman hosts with kindred weapons rush
1.466.620
To battle, nor did the high gods deem it hard
1.466.621
That twice Emathia and the wide champaign
1.466.622
Of Haemus should be fattening with our blood.
1.466.623
Ay, and the time will come when there anigh,
1.466.624
Heaving the earth up with his curved plough,
1.466.625
Some swain will light on javelins by foul rust
1.466.626
Corroded, or with ponderous harrow strike
1.466.627
On empty helmets, while he gapes to see
1.466.628
Bones as of giants from the trench untombed.
1.466.629
Gods of my country, heroes of the soil,
1.466.630
And Romulus, and Mother Vesta, thou
1.466.631
Who Tuscan Tiber and Rome's Palatine
1.466.632
Preservest, this new champion at the least
1.466.633
Our fallen generation to repair
1.466.634
Forbid not. To the full and long ago
1.466.635
Our blood thy Trojan perjuries hath paid,
1.466.636
Laomedon. Long since the courts of heaven
1.466.637
Begrudge us thee, our Caesar, and complain
1.466.638
That thou regard'st the triumphs of mankind,
1.466.639
Here where the wrong is right, the right is wrong,
1.466.640
Where wars abound so many, and myriad-faced
1.466.641
Is crime; where no meet honour hath the plough;
1.466.642
The fields, their husbandmen led far away,
1.466.643
Rot in neglect, and curved pruning-hooks
1.466.644
Into the sword's stiff blade are fused and forged.
1.466.645
Euphrates here, here Germany new strife
1.466.646
Is stirring; neighbouring cities are in arms,
1.466.647
The laws that bound them snapped; and godless war
1.466.648
Rages through all the universe; as when
1.466.649
The four-horse chariots from the barriers poured
1.466.650
Still quicken o'er the course, and, idly now
1.466.651
Grasping the reins, the driver by his team
1.466.652
Is onward borne, nor heeds the car his curb.